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The Fall of Austria and Czechoslovakia
Hitler had met up with the top of his military in secret to plan his attack on his neighbors. He wanted to take over Austria and Czechoslovakia to expand Germany and its power. One of his military advisers suggested that taking over the two would not be good and create a war. Hitler did not care and said, "The German Question can be solved only by means of force". -
The First Attack
On March 12, 1938, Hitler and his army marched into Austria for the first attack. Only a day later, Germany announced its "union" with Austria was complete. -
The Attack on the Czech
Only three days after the first attack Hitler sent his military into Czechoslovakia. Hitler wanted Czechoslovakia for its rich resources the land. This was a bloody time in Czechoslovakia and a U.S. correspondent, William Shier, wrote "Bloody Regime - new Czech murders of germans". Early on Britain and France made a promise to protect Czechoslovakia, but war soon seemed inevitable. Hitler would take over Czechoslovakia and then turn his focus to taking over Poland. -
Munich Agreement
As the war started to feel inevitable, Hitler brought together the french premier, Edouard Daladier, and the British prime minister, Neville Chamberlain, in Munich. Hitler then talked about his annexation of Sudetenland and said it would be his "last territorial demand". In the hopes to avoid war with Germany Chamberlain and Daladier believed Hitler and signed off Sudetenland to Hitler. People such as Winston Churchill believed this was appeasement and did not believe it was right. -
Nonaggression Pact
The Nonaggression Pact between Germany and Russia took everyone by surprise. Stalin and Hitler signed a pact to never attack one another. Not too long ago Germany and Russia were two of the biggest enemies to one another, now they have signed to never attack one another. Now with tension rising in Poland, the Soviet Union and Germany also signed an agreement to split Poland in secret. -
War Declared
Only two days after the first attack on Poland, Poland, France, and Britain declared war on Germany. Poland had fallen right into what Hitler wanted and his plan of blitzkrieg had worked. Blitzkrieg was a new method of war, lightning war, using Germany's new technology. Hitler continued to his this new strategy and would soon take over the western portion of Poland where two-thirds of the population lived. It did not take long for Poland to be completely gone and for WW2 to start. -
Surprise Attack
On April 4th, 1940 Hitler set off his surprise attack on Denmark and Norway. Hitler told many that this attack was to "help" these countries and protect their independence. When in reality he wanted to put bases in the countries to help his attack on Great Britain. Hitler would then turn his back on Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxemburg, soon to take them over. -
The Fall of France
Germany had captured nearly 400,000 British and French troops on the path of going to Paris. After nearly 330,000 of them escaped, Italy joined the war taking Germany's side. On June 22, 1940, Hitler handed Fench officers his letter to surrender. He had taken completely over the northern part of France and the southern part was Nazi-controlled. -
Call off the Attack
After Germany bombing over Britain with 2,000 planes night after night the RAF started to fight back. On the 15th of September, 1940 the RAF shot down 185 German planes and only lost 25 of their own. Only six weeks later Hitler finally called off their invasion of Britain forever. Germany would continue to set bombs off in Britain to just disrupt the peace. Once they ran out of planes they invented rockets to shoot off bombs.