20c - The War in Europe (Lesson)
The War in Europe
Britain Stands Alone
Hitler knew that his next step would more than likely result in war and he needed to be prepared. It was important to Hitler to have a non-aggression pact with the Soviet Union as he wanted to avoid a two front war, a pact that Hitler and Stalin signed in 1939. On September 1, 1939 the 2nd World War began when the Germans invaded Poland. Upon the invasion of Poland, France and Britain declared war beginning World War II. Poland fell in less than a month with the Soviets marching into Poland from the east. The Russians then invaded Finland, annexed the Baltic States, and forced Romania to cede the province of Bessarabia.
Though war was declared, the Allied forces needed time to pull together their armies, and the Germans needed to move their army to the west. The Sitzkrieg (sitting war or phony war) resulted in neither side making a move for six months (with the exception of the Russians). The Sitzkrieg came to an immediate end as Germany moved in to take Denmark and Norway during the spring of 1940. Neville Chamberlain stepped down as Prime Minister in Britain in the face of serious opposition due to his failed appeasement policies. Winston Churchill became the new Prime Minister and guided Britain throughout the war. In May of 1940, Hitler's army marched through Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Belgium, surprising France as it expected the attack from the east, not the north. As in Poland, the Germans used the tactic of Blitzkrieg ("lightning war") resulting in the Battle of France beginning on June 5th. Shortly after the battle began, Italy joined the war by attacking France from the south, and by June 14th, Paris had fallen to the German army. One of the final battles in France was the Battle of Dunkirk which resulted in massive evacuations of English and French troops to England. These French troops, under the leadership of General Charles de Gaulle, became the Free French Army.
On June 20th, Henri Petain signed an armistice with the German government which divided Germany into an occupied state in the north and west with the remainder (Vichy France, named after its new capital) to be ruled by Petain as a collaborative government. Once France had fallen, Europe for all intents and purposes belonged to Germany with only Britain standing alone against the German war machine.
And so the Battle of Britain began a six-month period in which the Germans hit Britain with air strikes on a daily basis. The Royal Air Force (RAF) was pitted against the Luftwaffe, a superior air power. The RAF and its dedicated pilots were given a great deal of credit for saving Britain not only by repelling air strikes but by helping to prop up the dwindling morale of the people. With the urging of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the United States did institute the Lend-Lease Program which allowed the British to borrow or lease old war materials (post WWI laws forbade the US to sell to belligerent nations) in exchange for leases on military bases around the world.
Aftermath of the "Blitz" in London.
Germany Makes Mistakes: The War Turns for the Allies
By May of 1943, the Allies were able to use their ships without fear of German subs as they were losing more than they were able to build. The British were preparing for a landed invasion when Hitler changed the focus of his invasions. By the late summer of 1940, he was planning Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union. In June of 1941, Hitler's armies invaded the Soviet Union with three lines advancing on Leningrad (north), Moscow (middle), and the Ukraine (south). The German army spent tremendous amounts of manpower and resources in the march through the Soviet Union (900-day siege of Leningrad and the German inability to take Moscow). In the spring of 1942, the Germans launched an offensive to take the oilfields in the Caucasus. They did not reach the oil fields as they were stalled at Stalingrad, one of the bloodiest battles of the war. There was no other way for this to end but in a standoff - the Germans had orders to accept no surrender, and Hitler would accept nothing less than wiping the cities off the face of the map. The Russians were ordered to hold the cities at all costs, forcing them to remain in the cities and fight through bitter winters and famine. Many Russians had no choice but to eat bread made of sawdust as there was a period when no supplies could get into the city.
By the end of 1943, the Soviets had counterattacked and reclaimed most of the territory that the Germans had won.
Photograph of Stalingrad burning.
In the Mediterranean, the British were successful in conquering Italian North African holdings. The German Afrika Korps commanded by Erwin Rommel (the Desert Fox) were dispatched to North Africa to save Italy from collapse. Rommel was unsuccessful against the primary British forces with US support (commanded by Bernard Montgomery) as Hitler was preoccupied with his Balkan campaign. By November 1942, the Allies had defeated the Axis forces in North Africa and cleared the way for an invasion of Italy.
The Allies invaded Sicily in July 1943 and proceeded up through Italy. With the Allied invasion of Italy, Italian partisans overthrew Mussolini and the new government surrendered to the Allies on September 3rd. The Germans rescued Mussolini and occupied the northern area of Italy. The Germans refused to accept the surrender as it had not been offered by a government they recognized. The new Italian government then declared war on Germany and joined the Allied side as it was the only way to get the Germans out of their nation. The Italian campaign was hard fought with Rome not falling to the Allies until June 1944, two days before the Invasion of Normandy. The tide had turned in the war by 1944 due largely to the high numbers of planes that were conducting daytime raids on German cities. This bombing damaged the German war effort to the point that allowed for a European invasion to reclaim Europe from the Axis Powers. At the time of the Invasion of Normandy, the Allied armies were moving north through the Italian Peninsula and the Russians were moving eastward from the Baltic States.
On June 6, 1944 (D-Day), American, British, and Canadian soldiers landed on the beaches of Normandy. Paris was liberated in August with the Allied forces moving through the Low Countries, pushing east. The last big German counteroffensive of the European war (unsuccessful) was the Battle of the Bulge in Belgium (Ardennes Forest). From the Battle of the Bulge on the Western front, the Allies pushed east while the Russians pushed west (liberating concentration and death camps in eastern European countries such as Poland). By the end of April, the Axis troops in Italy had surrendered (Mussolini was captured by Italian patriots trying to flee and was killed). Hitler committed suicide on April 28th in his bunker in Berlin days before the Russians entered the city. German representatives surrendered, ending the war in Europe (VE-Day).
Watch John Green's Crash Course European History video over World War II. There is a wealth of information that will assist you in your notes. You can access the video from the link below; you will need access to Youtube to view.
Crash Course European History - World War II. Links to an external site.
In your notes, respond to the following questions.
- The United States and the Soviet Union provided the soldiers and resources necessary to turn the war against Nazi Germany. Yet they entered the war against Germany in very different ways. List three points that describe the policy of the United States towards Europe between September 1939 and December 1941. Juxtapose this description with three points about the Soviet Union’s policies between August 1939 and June 1941.
- Provide a counterfactual scenario in which Germany won World War II (these are easily found on the internet). Do you find this scenario convincing? If so, why? If not, why not?
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