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Final Exam Research Paper Khadijeh Issa 12B
War in Europe
Hitler met with his senior military advisers in private on November 5, 1937. He boldly
asserted that Germany needs the territory of its neighbours to thrive and prosper. His objective
was to incorporate Austria and Czechoslovakia into the Third Reich. When one of his advisers
objected that annexing such nations may spark a war, Hitler said, "'The German Question' can
only be solved by means of force, and this is never without risk."
Hitler’s Plans for Austria and Czechoslovakia

Hitler's first target was Austria. Following World War I, the Paris Peace Conference
formed Austria from the ruins of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Austria's 6 million inhabitants
were largely Germans who favoured German unification. On March 12, 1938, German forces
marched into Austria uncontested. The Anschluss, or "union," with Austria was completed one
day later. The US and other nations did nothing.Hitler eventually shifted his attention to
Czechoslovakia. The Sudetenland, Czechoslovakia's western border area, was home to around
3 million German-speaking inhabitants. The hilly terrain served as the major line of defence for
Czechoslovakia against German invasion.Hitler desired to annex Czechoslovakia in order to
increase Germany's dwelling space and gain
control of its vital natural resources.Hitler
accused the Czechs of discriminating against
Sudeten Germans and began massing soldiers
on the Czech border. In his diary, US writer
William Shirer, who was stationed in Berlin at the
time, wrote: "The Nazi press [is] full of hysterical
headlines.""Everything is a deception. For
example, 'Women and Children Murdered by
Czech Armoured Cars,' or 'Bloody Regime—New
Czech Murders of Germans.'”
Early in the battle, France and the United
Kingdom also agreed to protect Czechoslovakia. Then, just as war seemed inevitable, Hitler
summoned French Prime Minister Édouard Daladier and British Prime Minister Neville
Chamberlain to a summit in Munich. When they arrived, the führer said that the Sudetenland
annexation would be his "last territorial demand." In their desperation to avoid conflict, Daladier
and Chamberlain chose to trust him. On September 30, 1938, they signed the Munich
Agreement, which gave Germany control of the Sudetenland without firing a single shot.
Chamberlain walked home and announced, "My friends, peace with honour has returned from
Germany." "I believe our time is one of peace." Winston Churchill, Chamberlain's political
competitor in the United Kingdom, did not share his delight. By signing the Munich Agreement,
Daladier and Chamberlain, in Churchill's opinion, had engaged in a humiliating strategy of
appeasement—giving up ideals to accommodate an aggressor. As Churchill stated it clearly,
"Britain and France had to choose between war and dishonour." They chose dishonour. They
will have a battle." Nonetheless, the House of Commons endorsed Chamberlain's strategy
towards Germany, and Churchill issued a warning.
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Germany’s Attack on Poland

Hitler, as Churchill had predicted, was not done expanding the Third Reich. German
forces marched into what was left of Czechoslovakia as morning dawned on March 15, 1939.
Hitler boasted before dusk, "Czechoslovakia has ceased to exist." The German dictator then
turned his land-hungry focus to Poland, Germany's eastern neighbour.
Poland, like Czechoslovakia, has a large German-speaking populace. In the spring of
1939, Hitler launched his typical campaign, claiming that Germans in Poland were being
persecuted by Poles and required his protection. Some folks assumed Hitler was bluffing this
time. After all, an invasion on Poland may lead Germany into confrontation with the Soviet
Union, Poland's eastern neighbour. At the same time,
such an invasion would very certainly result in a
declaration of war from France and Britain, both of
whom had offered military assistance to Poland. The
consequence would be a two-front conflict. Fighting on
two fronts had drained Germany in World War I. Many
people assumed that Hitler would never make the same
mistake again.As tensions over Poland grew, Stalin
stunned everyone by striking a nonviolence treaty with
Hitler. On August 23, 1939, fascist Germany and communist Russia pledged never to fight one
other again. Germany and the Soviet Union also agreed to split Poland in a second, secret
treaty. Poland's fate was determined when the threat of a two-front war was removed.The
German Luftwaffe, or German air force, raced over Poland as day broke on September 1, 1939,
dropping bombs on military sites, airfields, railways, and cities. At the same moment, German
tanks sped over the Polish countryside, causing dread and uncertainty. The blitzkrieg, or
lightning war, was Germany's newest military concept, and this invasion was the first test of it.
Blitzkrieg used breakthroughs in military technology, such as quicker tanks and more powerful
aircraft, to surprise the adversary and then destroy any opposition with overwhelming force.
Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, two days after the terror in
Poland.
The blitzkrieg tactics were flawless. The major battle was done in three weeks, long
before France, the United Kingdom, and their allies could prepare a defence. The Soviet Union
assaulted Poland from the east in the final week of fighting, capturing part of its territory.
Germany's annexation of western Poland included about two-thirds of Poland's population.
Poland had ceased to exist before the end of the month, and World War II had begun.
The Beginning of World War II
After Poland fell, French and British troops on the Maginot Line, a series of fortifications
erected along France's eastern border (see map on p. 744), sat peering into Germany, waiting
for anything to happen. German troops on the Siegfried Line a few miles away returned the
look. The blitzkrieg had given place to the sitzkrieg ("sitting war"), which some publications
characterised to as the phoney war. Stalin began annexing the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia,
and Lithuania after seizing eastern Poland. Stalin led his Soviet troops into Finland late in 1939.
The outnumbered Finns surrendered after three months of battling. Hitler launched an
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unexpected invasion of Denmark and Norway on April 9, 1940, in order "to protect [those
countries'] freedom and independence." In reality, Hitler intended to create bases along the
coastlines from which to launch an attack on Great Britain. Hitler next turned his attention to the
Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which he quickly conquered by the end of May. The
bogus battle was over.
France's Maginot Line proved futile and the German army threatened to bypass it during
its invasion of Belgium. Hitler's generals routed their tanks through the Ardennes, an area of
forested gorges in north-east France, evading British and French forces who believed the
Ardennes were impenetrable. The Germans
resumed their march towards Paris.The
German attack caught almost 400,000 British
and French soldiers retreating to the beaches
of Dunkirk on the French side of the English
Channel. In less than a week, a makeshift
fleet of fishing trawlers, tugboats, river barges,
and pleasure craft—over 800 vessels in
total—ferried around 330,000 British, French,
and Belgian troops to safety over the
Channel. A few days later, Italy sided with
Germany and attacked France from the south, while the Germans pressed in from the north. On
June 22, 1940, in front of William Shirer and the rest of the world, Hitler handed up his surrender
terms to French officers in Compiègne. Germans would take over northern France, while in
Vichy, southern France, a Nazi-controlled puppet government led by Marshal Philippe Pétain
would be installed. Following France's defeat, a French general named Charles de Gaulle fled
to England and founded a government-in-exile. De Gaulle stated emphatically, "France has lost
a battle, but France has not lost the war."
In the summer of 1940, the Germans began to build an invasion fleet along the French
coast. Because its naval force could not match with Britain's, Germany began an air war at the
same time. The Luftwaffe commenced bombing missions over Britain. Its purpose was to take
ultimate control of the sky by defeating Britain's Royal Air Force (RAF). Hitler had 2,600 aircraft
at his disposal. On a single day, August 15, nearly 2,000 German aircraft flew over Britain.
Every night for two months, bombers pounded London. The Battle of Britain carried on
throughout the summer and fall. Night after night, German jets hammered British airports. The
Luftwaffe first focused on airfields and aircraft. It then moved on to cities.
The RAF fought back valiantly. British pilots correctly predicted the flight routes of
German jets using radar, a new technical technology. On September 15, 1940, the RAF shot
down over 185 German planes while losing only 26. Six weeks later, Hitler called off the
invasion of Britain indefinitely. "Never in the field of human conflict," Churchill observed of the
RAF pilots, "was so much owed by so many to so few." Nonetheless, German bombers
continued to bombard Britain's towns in an attempt to disrupt production and undermine civilian
morale. British pilots also bombarded German cities. Civilians in both nations persevered.
Sources: The book
Site: http://www.caggiasocialstudies.com/AHText/24-2.pdf
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Final Exam Research Paper Khadijeh Issa 12B

Hitler’s Plans for Austria and Czechoslovakia

Germany’s Attack on Poland

The Beginning of World War II

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