The document summarizes major events in Europe during World War 2 from 1939-1941. It describes Germany's invasion of Poland using blitzkrieg tactics, and the division of Poland between Germany and the Soviet Union. It then discusses Germany's defeat of France in 1940 by going around the Maginot Line through Belgium and trapping Allied forces at Dunkirk. Britain defeated Germany in the Battle of Britain in 1940. Fighting also occurred in North Africa between British and German/Italian forces. In 1941, Germany invaded the Soviet Union but underestimated Russian resilience and the harsh winter, suffering huge losses.

1. War in Europe
Ch 32.1

3. The German Offensive Begins
 Hitler eyes Poland
 Stalin and the Soviet Union signed a
nonaggression pact with Germany
– Agreed never to attack one another
– Secret, 2nd pact to split Poland once taken
 Blitzkrieg, or lightning war, in Poland.
– Fast tanks and powerful aircraft attacked
before the opposition could raise an army.

4. So Poland got divvied up in September 1939.
• Britain and France declare war on Germany, but
don’t do anything, thus giving the nickname of
The Phony War.
• Starting on May 10, 1940, Hitler makes his
move.
• The German plan was to go through neutral
Holland and Belgium and down into France,
almost exactly like WWI.

5. •Another reason the Germans did things this
way was so as to avoid France’s Maginot Line.
•France recognized that another war with
Germany was possible and so it invested in a
potent defensive strategy.
•The Germans got around the Line by
literally going around it. It didn’t cover
the French-Belgian border. Oops. It did
ok against the Italians, though.

9. • So the Germans go around the Line by going up
through Belgium.
• French and British forces are quickly pushed
back up against the English Channel at
Dunkirk.

10. • The soldiers were essentially stranded at Dunkirk
surrounded by the Germans on one side and the
sea on the other.
• Fortunately, Great Britain was on the other side
of that sea. Around 850 ships, most of them
privately owned and of all varieties sail across
the English Channel from 5/24 to 6/4 and
rescue nearly 338,000 men from certain
disaster.

13. Battle of Britain
• So it’s June 1940, France had fallen, the Eastern
Front had yet to be opened up, and the U.S.
was thus far not directly involved (though FDR
had been providing the British with material aid
through the Lend-Lease Act).
• It was Great Britain under Winston Churchill
against Nazi Germany.

14. • The British were tenacious and the RAF fighters
were a good match against the Germans.
• The RAF was using early radar.
• The Battle started in May. By September, the
Luftwaffe started bombing London.
• By mid-September, the invasion was given up,
though night bombings continued until May
1941.
• Hitler faced his first big defeat.

15. Junkers Ju 88
fighter-bomber
Messerschmitt Bf
109 fighter

16. RAF Hawker
Hurricane

17. RAF Spitfire

19. North Africa
• There’s fighting here from June 1940 to May
1943.
• Mussolini decides to attack the British in Egypt
in order to capture the strategic Suez Canal.
• The British fight back and paste the Italians, so
Hitler steps in to help his ally.
• Field Marshal Erwin Rommel is quite successful,
but British and American landings eventually
push him back.
• Rommel was a very competent general and
becomes a hero in Germany, though he later
falls out of favor with Hitler and is forced to
commit suicide.
• British forces were led by Bernard Montgomery.

20. Erwin Rommel: The
Desert Fox

21. Montgomery

24. War also flares in the Balkans.
• The Nazis defeat Greece in 17 days and raise
the swastika over the Acropolis in Athens.
That hurts.

25. Eastern Front
• Hitler wanted the USSR and was impatient to
get it. He launched a blitzkrieg on June 22,
1941 with over 4 million men.
• The Soviets were not well-prepared. While
they had a massive army, it was
technologically inferior to the Germans, not as
well-trained, and not nearly as well-
commanded.
• Keep in mind that Stalin had purged the
officer corps shortly before the war. Not
only did this get rid of good officers and
generals, but it left mostly yes-men behind
(would you want to tell Stalin he’s wrong?).

26. • The Germans advance quickly, aided by Soviet
stupidity.
• Communist tanks at this time tended to
break down a lot.
• Stalin initially ordered that no troops could
retreat, which only meant the Germans
surrounded them and cut them down.
• With the German army in sight of the Kremlin,
the Soviets launched a major counteroffensive
and threw the Germans back.

27. • About this time, the Russian winter also set in…
the same type of Russian winter that had cost
Napoleon 570,000 of 600,00 strong army.
• The German army was not prepared for the
winter, such as not having sufficient winter
clothing. Soldiers froze, so did vehicles,
animals, gasoline (temperatures sometimes
got down to -22), and grease. The Soviets
knew the winter and were better prepared.
• The German army became overstretched and
its supply lines overextended. It didn’t help
that Russian roads were bad and the rail
system the wrong size.

28. • The Germans also underestimated the tenacity of
the Soviets and the resilience of the government
which Hitler thought was weak and would easily
fall.
• Scorched Earth policy was used. Entire factories
were dismantled and transported east while the
rest was burned, leaving the invaders nothing.
• Battle of Leningrad, Battle of Stalingrad-Millions
of Russians starve to death.
• Germans eventually surrender-cannot defeat
Russian Army
• 500,000 Germans die on Eastern Front during
that winter of 1941.

29. The Dora

30. A Dora shell next to a T-
34 tank