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Hitler first met with his top military advisers. Hitler thought the only way Germany can grow was to take the land of the surrounding countries especially those that spoke German. This belief was called Anshiuss. That made him want to make Austria and Czechoslovakia into the Third Reich.
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Hitler marched into Austria and took it over. Austria did not fight back. The League of Nations did nothing.
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Hitler, Édouard Daladier (French leader), and Neville Chamberlain (Britain leader) signed the Munich Agreement. The Munich Agreement allowed Germany to take over Sudetenland without a fight. Not everybody liked this agreement. Winston Churchill called it an appeasement or a way of giving up principles to pacify an aggressor.
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Germany took over the rest of Czechoslovakia.
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Germany and the Soviet Union signed a Nonaggression Pact. The Nonaggression Pact stated that Germany and the Soviet Union would never fight each other. It also divided Poland in half, each country taking half of it.
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Germany started to bomb Poland with their air force or Luftwaffe. They used a strategy called blitzkrieg or lightning way. This strategy was meant to catch an enemy by surprise.
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Britain and France declared war on Germany. This was called a “Phony War” or sitzkrieg because no fighting happened. Troops just sat on the Maginot Line.
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Germany launched a surprise attack on Denmark and Norway. He planned to build bases on these new territories.
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France surrendered to Germany. Charles de Gaulle, a French general, fled to England to set up a “Government in exile”.
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Britain was being bombed by Germany every single night for two months. Germany was hoping to get rid of Britain’s Royal Air Force. Germany used about 2,000 airplanes every night.
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Britain was able to fight back Germany. On this specific day they shot down 185 German planes and only lost 26 planes.
