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Austria and Czechoslovakia fall
Hitler met secretly with his top military advisers. He declared that to grow and prosper Germany needed the land of its neighbors. His plan was to take the land from Austria and Czechoslovakia. When Hitler was approached by one of his advisers the fear of provoking war by annexing those countries was brought up. Hitler dismissed this fear by saying that force was the only way to solve “German Question’” was with force and with force comes the risk of war. -
Union with Austria
German troops marched to Austria unopposed due to the 6 million people who lived of the favouring German unification. A day later Germany announced that its anschluss or union with Austria was complete. The United States and the rest of the world had done nothing. March 12 1938 -
Bargaining for the Sudetenland
Sudetenland was turned over to Germany due to the signing of Munich Agreement. There wasn't a single shot fired, but Hitler gained Sudetenland by claiming that the Czechs were abusing the 3 million Germans that lived there. Hitler began massing troops on the Czech border. -
The German Offensive Begins
Hitler was not finished expanding the Third Reich. German troops poured into the remained of Czechoslovakia as Hitler gloated that “Czechoslovakia has ceased to exist”. The German dictator turned his land-hungry gaze towards Germany's eastern neighbor, Poland. -
The Soviet Union Declares Neutrality.
Hitler began to say that Germans in Poland were being mistreated, and high tension sprung between Poland, the Soviet Union, and Germany. This tension was stopped when Stalin surprised everyone by signing a nonaggression pact with Hitler. Another secret pact was signed between the Soviet Union and Germany in which they agreed to divide Poland between them. -
Blitzkrieg in Poland
The German air force, roared over poland raining bombs on military bases, airfields railroads and city. At the same time Germany tanked raced across the polish countryside gaining terror and confusion this was the first germany's test of newest military strategy. On September 3 britain and france declared war on germany. -
The Phony War
After several months of sitzkrieg (“sitting war”), and waiting for something to happen after the fall of Poland, Hitler launched a surprise invasion of Denmark and Norway. Hitler claimed that he attacked in order “to protect [those countries’] freedom and independence.” However, Hitler's actual plan was to build bases along the coasts to strike at Great Britain. Next, Hitler turned against the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg, which were overrun by the end of May. The phony war had ended. -
The fall of France
The German trapped almost 400,000 British and French soldiers. About 330,000 British, french and Belgian troops went to safety across the channel. William Shirer and the rest of the world watched lither handed french his team of surrender -
The Battle of Britain
The RAF shot down over 185 German planes, and lost only 26 aircraft. Six weeks later Hitler called off the invasion of BritainTim.