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Germany Colnspires Invasion
Hitler met secretly with his top military advisors and bodly declared that to grow and prosper Germany needed the land of it's neighbors. -
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Germany Expansion Timeline
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Austria Falls
Austria was Hitler's first target. The majority of the small nation was made up of Germans who favored unification with Germany. On MArfch 12, 1938, German troops marched into Austria unapposed. A day later, Germany announced that its union with Austria was complete. The rest of the world did nothing. -
Germany's "Last Territorial Demand"
Hitler invited French premier Edouard Daladi8er and the British prime minister to meet with him in Munich. The two believed Hitlers claims about taking over the Czechs land would be his last expansion. Therefore, the Munich Agremment was signed, turning Sudetenland over to Germany without a single shot fired. -
The German Offensive Begins
As Churchill had warned, Hitler was not finished expanding the Third Reich. As dawn broke on March 15, 1939, German troops poured into what remained of Czechoslovakia. At nightfall Hitler gloated, “Czechoslovakia has ceased to exist.”
After that, the German dictator turned his land-hungry gaze toward Germany’s eastern neighbor, Poland. -
Neutrality Is Declared
Once bitter enemies, on August 23, 1939 fas-cist Germany and communist Russia now committed never to attack each other. Germany and the Soviet Union also signed a second, secret pact, agreeing to divide Poland between them. With the danger of a two-front war eliminated, the fate of Poland was sealed. -
Blitzkrieg
The German air force, roared over Poland, raining bombs on military bases, airfields, railroads, and cities. At the same time, German tanks raced across the Polish countryside, spreading terror and confusion. -
Denmark Envaded
Hitler launched a surprise invasion of Denmark and Norway in order
“to protect [those countries’] freedom and independence.”
But in truth, Hitler planned to build bases along the coasts to strike at Great Britain. -
The Fall Of France
Hitler handed French officers his terms of surrender. Germans would occupy the northern part of France, and a Nazi controlled puppet government, head ed by Marshal Philippe P tain, would be set up at Vichy, in southern France. -
RAF Fights Back
With the help of a new technological device called radar, British pilots accurately p;lotgted te flight p;aths of German planes, even in darkness. On September 15, 1940 Britain's Royal Air Force shot down over 185 Germasn planes; at the same time, they lost only 26 aircraft. Six weeks later Hitler called off the invasion of Britain indefinitely.
