I.               World War II (WWII)

A.     The Outbreak of WWII

1.     In August of 1939, Germany and the Soviet Union stunned the world by announcing a 10-year nonaggression pact. In addition, they secretly agreed to divide Eastern Europe.

2.     On September 1, 1939, German forces attacked Poland. Two days later, Great Britain and France declared war on Germany.

3.     Germany’s blitzkrieg or “lightening war” combined fast-moving armor and air power to overwhelm Poland.

B.     The German Conquest of Europe

1.     Attack on Poland

2.     By July 1940, Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania had become satellite states of the Soviet Union.

3.     In June 1940, Russia forced Romania to cede Bessarabia.

4.     War on the Western Front

a.     Many western observers believed this would be a “phony war,” or Sitzkrieg, and it would have little impact on the western powers; however, this view changed when Germany invaded Denmark and Norway and had a staging ground for an invasion of Britain.

5.     In the late spring of 1940, Germany launched an air attack on Belgium (surrendered in two weeks), the Netherlands (surrendered in a few days), and Luxembourg.

6.     German army bypassed the Maginot Line by launching an invasion of France through Belgium.

7.     In two months Hitler had accomplished what Germany had failed to achieve in four years of bitter fighting in the previous war.

C.     The Battle of Britain

1.     Winston Churchill became prime minister of Britain in May 1940 and led tough resistance against German control of the continent, as he was unwilling to negotiate with Hitler.

2.     Churchill established a close friendship with Franklin D. Roosevelt

§US was neutral and politically dominated by an isolationist policy.

§Churchill convinced the US to send supplies and warships across the Atlantic to  

     help protect Britain.

3.     Hitler’s attempt to take Great Britain

§German air force, or Luftwaffe, began attacking airfields and fighter planes in southeast England, in August 1940

§Beginning in early September 1940, the Luftwaffe bombed London for two months straight and killed 15,000 civilians.

·      The bombing of London strengthened the moral of the British people

4.     Assisted by newly developed radar detection technology and excellent communications, the RAF (royal air force) inflicted heavy losses on the Luftwaffe and forced Hitler to abort his plan to invade Britain.