Home
Architecture
Art
Beauty/Health
Beer
Business/Economy
Cars
Celebrities
Christmas
Dictionaries
Education
Fashion/Clothes
Food
Galleries
Gays/Lesbians
Genealogy
German Names
Germans Abroad
History
Holidays
Homework Help
Learn German
Law
Literature
Loveparade
Movies
Music
Nazi
News
Oktoberfest
Philosophy
Today in History
Traditions
Travel to Germany
Wines
More topics...
Facts About Germany
Armed Forces
Education
Economy
History
Geography
Mass Media
Politics
Society
German History
Early History
Medieval History
Thirty Years' War
Weimar Republic
Third Reich
Postwar
Honecker Era
Berlin Wall
Bismarck
German Recipes
Salads
Main Dishes
Desserts
Baking
German Chocolate Cake
Easter Dishes
Halloween Dishes
Christmas Dishes
How To in Germany
Articles
Quizzes
|
The Outbreak of World War II
On September 1, 1939, German troops invaded Poland. Britain and France
declared war on Germany two days later. By the end of the month, Hitler's
armies had overrun western Poland. Soviet armies occupied eastern Poland,
and the two countries subsequently formally divided Poland between them.
In April 1940, German forces conquered Denmark and Norway, and in May
they struck at the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, and France.
French
and British troops offered ineffective resistance against the lightning-like
strikes, or blitzkrieg, of German tanks and airplanes. A large part of
the French army surrendered, and some 300,000 British and French soldiers
were trapped at Dunkirk on the coast of northern France. However, because
Hitler, for a combination of political and military reasons, had halted
the advance of his armored divisions, the British were able to rescue
the men at Dunkirk. France, however, surrendered in June.
For Hitler the war in the west was a sideshow, a prelude to the building
of an empire in eastern Europe and the Soviet Union. Hitler had hoped
that Britain would stay out of the war. In his vision of the near future,
he foresaw the two countries sharing the world between them--Britain would
keep its overseas empire, and Germany would construct a new one to its
east. When approached with the suggestion of a separate peace, British
prime minister Winston Churchill rejected the offer and rallied his people
to fight on. The Third Reich experienced its first military defeat in
the Battle of Britain, in which the Royal Air Force, during the summer
and fall of 1940, prevented the German air force from gaining the air
superiority necessary for an invasion of Britain. Consequently, Hitler
postponed the invasion.
Hitler concluded by June 1941 that Britain's continuing resistance was
not a serious impediment to his main geopolitical goal of creating an
empire extending east from Germany deep into the Soviet Union. On June
22, 1941, negating their 1939 non-aggression pact, Germany invaded the
Soviet Union. Eagerness to realize his long-held dream caused Hitler to
gamble everything on a quick military campaign. He had anticipated victory
within three months, but effective Soviet resistance and the early onset
of winter stopped German advances. A counteroffensive, launched in early
1942, drove the Germans back from Moscow. In the summer of 1942, Hitler
shifted the attack to the south of the Soviet Union and began a large
offensive to secure the Caucasian oil fields. By September 1942, the Axis
controlled an area extending from northern Norway to North Africa and
from France to Stalingrad.
Pearl Harbor Attack, 7 December 1941
Japan's attack on the United States naval base at Pearl Harbor on December
7, 1941, brought the United States into the war. In support of Germany's
fellow Axis power, Hitler immediately declared war on the United States.
But with the United States involvement, a coalition now existed that,
with its vast human and material resources, was almost certain to defeat
the Third Reich. To ensure that the alliance not break apart as had happened
in 1918 when Russia signed a truce with Germany, the Allies swore to fight
Germany until an unconditional surrender was secured. Another reason the
Allies wanted the complete military defeat of Germany was that they wished
to preclude any possibility of German politicians claiming that "a stab
in the back" had caused Germany's undoing, as they had done after World
War I.
The Battle of Stalingrad, 1942-1943
The military turning point of the war in Europe came with the Soviet
victory at Stalingrad in the winter of 1942-43; some 300,000 of Germany's
finest troops were either killed or captured. By May 1943, Allied armies
had driven the Axis forces out of Africa and had landed in Italy. Also
of great importance, by 1943 the United States and British navies had
succeeded in substantially reducing the German submarine threat to shipping.
This cleared the way for the movement of arms and troops to Britain in
preparation for a cross-channel invasion of France.
- The Third Reich, 1933-1945:
Consolidation of Power
- Foreign Policy
- The Outbreak of World
War II
- Total Mobilization, Resistance,
and the Holocaust
- Defeat
Google
|
|