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Adolf Htler
Adolf Hitler was an anticommunist leader. He admired the work of Mussolini. He fought for Germany in WWI. He and the country were very mad at the Treaty of Versailles. Germany created the Nazi Party. Hitler very quickly became the leader of this party. He put the blame of WWI on the Jews. He gained popularity very quickly and rose to power planning to take back everything they lost and more. -
Anschluss
Germany threatened to invade Austria if Austria didn't put their German Speaking citizens at an important governent post. Austria's chancellor wanted to put it to a vote, but Hitler sent troops into Austria annoucing the anschluss or the unification of Austria and Germany. -
Munich Confrence
Representatives of Britain, France, Italy, and Germany agreed to meet in Munich to decide Czechoslovakia's fate. Britain and France agreed to Hitler's demands hoping it would bring peace and prevent war. The appeasement failed, Hitler didn't hold up his ed and invaded Chechoslovakia. -
Danzig
Hitler demanded the city of Danzig be returned to German control. Danzig was a 90% German populated. It had been part of Poland since WWI. Hitler was planning to invaid Poland. Britain anf France said they would come to Poland's aid. -
Czechoslovakia
Germany claimed the Sudetenland, which was a larg Germany-speaking nation that was part of Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia resisted their requests. Germany sent troops into Czechoslovakia and divided the country into Slovakia which became independent, and Czech lands became a protectorate. -
Nazi-Soviet Pact
Germany did not want to have to worry about fighting the Soviets. So they decided to sign a non-agression pact with the Soviets. Stalin agreed to this because he believed the best way to protect the USSR was if the capitalists countries were turned against eachother. This shocked the nation. Germany did not plan to hold up this deal the whole way through. -
Poland, Britain, France
On this day Germany invaded Poland. Two days after that Britain and France declared war on Germany. This marking the start of WWII. -
Blitzkreig
Poland's army was outdated. They rode horses against German tanks. The German's used a new type of warfare call blitzkrieg. "Lightning war" This involved using large number of massed tanks to break through and rapidly encircle enemy positions. This also involved airccrafts dropping bombs. -
Poland Fell
The Germany army was way to much for the Poland military to handle. ThePolish Capital Warsaw fell to the Germans on September 27. The country was completely taken over by the Germans on October 5. -
Phony War or Bore War
Westerm Europe remained quiet and on the defensive during the early parts of the war. The Germans called it the sitting war. British called it the Bore War while American papers named the war the Phony War. -
Invasion of France
French had built what they called the Maginot Line along the German Border. What this was is it was a line of concrete bunkers and fortifications. The French waited behind this. This ended up bad because the Germans went through Belgium into France. The Germans were able to trap the French army into Belgium and take over France. -
Evacuation at Dunkirk
The Germans wanted to take over the one Important port that they didn't have control over. They had the troops had Dunkirk trapped and could of easily been killed. Hitler called his troops off for whatever reason. He gave Britain 3 days. Britain was able to strengthen their lines and begin evacuating. 850 ships showed up to help.338,000 British and French troops had been saved. -
French Surrender
The French surrendering meant the Germans had occupied much of Northern France and its Atlantic coastline. To govern France Germany installed a puupet government at the town of Vichy. -
Battle of Britain
German airforce Luftwaffe need to take out the Royal Airforce. They launched an all out aribattle between that too. Germany accidentally bombed London and Britain responded by bombing Berlin.
