Download Hitler`s lightning war

Hitler’s Lightning
War
Chapter 16: Section 1
Setting the Stage
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Hitler played on the hopes & fears of the West
Grabbed land and then made new demands
List numerous violations
Finally demanded Polish Corridor
Brit & Fr said NO
Nonaggression Pact 1939
• What did Germany gain?
• What did the Soviets gain?
Blitzkrieg
• Germany military strategy
• Means “lightning war”
• Involves air power and tanks followed by
massive infantry forces to take enemy
defenders by surprise & quickly overwhelm
them
The Phony War or Sitzkrieg
• Brit & Fr mobilized troops along Maginot Line
• Stared eastward toward the Siegfried Line
• Jokingly referred to as the Sitzkrieg or Bore
War or Phony War
• Suddenly calm ended on Apr 9, 1940 with
invasion of Denmark & Norway
• Began bldg bases ag Brit
Rescue at Dunkirk
• Britain sent fleet of 850 ships
• Civilian craft – yachts, lifeboats, motorboats,
paddle steamers, fishing boats, etc.
• 338,000 weary soldiers were rescued.
France Falls
Following Dunkirk resistance began to crumble
French surrender Jun 22, 1940
Germans took control of Northern Fr
Southern part of France became puppet gov
headed by Marshal Philippe Petain.
• Headquarters was at Vichy
• Became known as the Vichy gov
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Battle of Britain
• Winston Churchill
• Hitler plans invasion of Britain
• 1st plan was to destroy RAF & to land 250,000 soldiers in
England
• By summer ‘40 Luftwaffe began bombing Britain (first
airfields then cities)
• 2 technological devices help turn the tide
• Radar
• Enigma
• Showed that the Germans could be stopped
Mussolini Attacks Egypt
Wanted to capture Suez Canal
Pushed into Egypt
Brits pushed back & captured 130,000
Hitler had to step in to save Mussolini
Hitler sent the Afrika Korps under Erwin
Rommel known as the Desert Fox
• Brits & Germans went back and forth until
Operation Torch which resulted in Afrika Korps
trapped
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War in the Balkans
• Hitler wanted to build bases in SE Europe for
his invasion of the USSR
• By early 1941 through threat of force he
persuaded Bulgaria, Romania & Hungary to
join the Axis Powers
• Yugoslavia & Greece refused & were invaded
by the Nazis
Operation Barbarosa
USSR was unprepared for the attack
Officer corps was purged during Great Purges
Pushed 500 miles into Russia
Soviets practiced scorched earth policy which
they also used against Napoleon
• Leningrad
• Moscow
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US Policy
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Neutrality Acts
Cash and carry
Lend Lease
Undeclared naval war with Germany