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The Years of Axis Triumph

The Years of Axis Triumph. Section 21.106. Nazi Europe, 1939-1940: Poland and the Fall of France. Nazi Europe, 1939-1940: Poland and the Fall of France. Germans 1 million German soldiers invaded Poland on 9/1/1939 Blitzkrieg (lightning war)

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The Years of Axis Triumph

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  1. The Years of Axis Triumph Section 21.106

  2. Nazi Europe, 1939-1940: Poland and the Fall of France

  3. Nazi Europe, 1939-1940: Poland and the Fall of France Germans • 1 million German soldiers invaded Poland on 9/1/1939 • Blitzkrieg (lightning war) • Utilized rapidly moving armored divisions, infantry, and a massive air assault (Luftwaffe) • Quickly overran Polish forces Soviets • Soviet Union invaded from east on 9/17 (secret agreement) • Established fortified bases in Baltic states (Estonia, Latvia, Lith) • Attacked Finland (11/39) • Fins were supplied by GB and French • Soviets expelled from League of Nations • USSR won by March 1940

  4. The Phony War

  5. The Phony War • Deceptively quiet in the West • French felt protected by the Maginot Line • Germans did not cross the Siegfried Line (West Wall) of the Rhineland • Little military action took place • West rejected Hitler peace overtures but kept their peacetime outlook • Still hoped that conflict could be averted • German forces trained throughout bitter winter for the spring

  6. Spring of 1940 • 4/9 German attacked/overran Norway and Denmark (under pretext that GB was blocking iron flow from Sweden) • Invaded Low Countries (Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg (5/10) • British Expeditionary Force and French forces gathered at Belgian border • Hitler bypassed Maginot Line and invaded France via Luxembourg and the Ardennes • Raced to channel ports to cut off retreating armies • German army captured large section of French army • BEF cut off at Dunkirk in Belgium • Miracle of Dunkirk • 330 thousand BEF evacuated with motley of boats

  7. The Fall of France • Occupied Paris 6/13/40 • Given without a fight • France surrendered on June 22, 1940 • French mindset geared for defensive war • Caught totally off guard by Blitzkrieg • Mussolini invaded (June, 1940) • Also attacked Greece and N. Africa (Brits) • Divided population were led by defeatist leaders • Fall shocked the world (fell in 1 month) • Free France movement under General Charles de Gaulle fled to GB • British forced to scuttle French fleet in Algerian harbor of Oran rather than allow it to fall to Germans

  8. Vichy France

  9. Vichy France • Northern 2/3rd occupied by Germany • 3rd Republic now held capital in Vichy • Stunned parliament voted for an authoritarian regime headed by Marshal Petain and Pierre Laval • Republic is dead! • Slogan “liberty, equality, and fraternity” were officially banned • French fascists and the new leaders claimed that they were trying to protect France from more suffering

  10. Vichy France • Collaborated with the Nazis • Sent hundreds of thousands of French workers as slave laborers to Germany • Identified and deported thousands of French Jews to death camps • Some collaborated, a few joined Underground Resistance • Most of population tried to go on with day-to-day life

  11. Festung Europa

  12. Festung Europa • Does history repeat? • Germans controlled almost same territory as Napoleon • Created a new “continental system” to govern, exploit and coordinate resources, industry and labor • Impressed millions, prisoners of war and civilians as slave labor • Festung Europa (Fortress Europe) • Soldiers were garrisoned throughout Europe • Found sympathizers, collaborators or quislings • Vidkun Quisling was organizer of Norwegian Fascist party in 1933 and premier from 1942-45 • ½ million non-Germans fought in Waffen SS • AND only foe was Great Britain!!!!!!!!

  13. The Battle of Britain and American Aid • Brits anticipated an invasion after Dunkirk • Churchill replaced Chamberlain as PM in May 1940 • Promised people nothing but “blood, toil, tears, and sweat” and war against “a monstrous tyranny, never surpassed in the dark, lamentable catalogue of human crime.” • Asked US for the “tools” to finish the job • US was officially neutral • Isolationist opposed any involvement • Charles Lindberg and the America First Committee • Interventionists wanted to provide aid to Allies • FDR

  14. The Great Arsenal of Democracy • FDR called GB “spearhead of resistance to world democracy • US would supply the Brits as the “arsenal of democracy” • Fights for Four Freedoms: • Speech, worship, from want, from fear • Began to supply GB soon after Dunkirk • 50 overage destroyers in return for bases in Newfoundland, Bermudas, Caribbean • Lend-Lease • Policy of providing arms, raw materials, food to Allies • Introduced conscription • Created hemispheric defense with Latin American nations

  15. Air war over Britain: The Blitz • Germany rapid success was too fast for them to devise a plan for invasion of GB • Hoped GB might become an ally • Began pre-invasion air war in summer of ’40 • The Blitz • Reached climax in fall of ’40 • Bombed London for over 76 consecutive nights • RAF • used radar to detect approaching bombers • Were highly skilled • Combined P51 with Rolls Royce engine • Ultra (British intelligence + Polish exiles) broke the code of German encoding device (Enigma Machine) • Coventry was wiped out • 20 thousand killed in London alone • Yet war capacity and morale remained strong • Hitler began to plan for invasion of USSR in ‘41

  16. The Blitz

  17. The Nazi Invasion of Russia: The Russian Front, 1941-42 • Nazi-Soviet Pact (1929) similar to Napoleon-Alexander I • Both were biding their time • Soviets quietly sovietized 3 Baltic states into USSR • Baltic barons were returned to Germany • Took Bessarabian province of Romania • Hoped to win control of the Balkans and Eastern Europe • 1941 Hitler ‘convinced’ Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary to join Axis powers (German troops stationed there) • Yugo and Greece also occupied • Hitler desire the wheat fields of Ukraine, the oil fields of Caucasus

  18. Barbarossa 6/7/1941

  19. The Nazi Invasion of Russia • Operation Barbarosa began 6/22/1941 • Stalin (although warned) was completely caught off guard • 3 million German forces went along 2 thousand mile front • By autumn Germans controlled Ukraine and Byelorussia and laid siege to Leningrad • Took Crimea and laid siege to Sebastopol • Were within 25 miles of Russia • But were not prepared for early and bitter winter • Resistance stiffened to save Mother Russia • Counteroffensive of Red Army in winter saved Moscow • Hitler took control and pushed for attack in south towards oil fields • Laid siege to Stalingrad • Albert Speer organized German economy for what would now be a long war and tripled armaments production

  20. 1942, The Year of Dismay: Russia, North Africa, the Pacific • Germans were within 100 miles of Caspian Sea • Russians shifted industry east of Urals • Followed a “scorched earth” policy • Destroyed crops and livestock • Guerilla units destroyed industrial and transportation facilities

  21. The Desert Campaigns • Beginning in Sept 1940 under Italian offensive from Libya to Egypt seeking control of Suez • Outnumbered the Brits ousted the Italians by early 41 and took Ethiopia from Mussolini • German Afrika Corps under Rommel attacked and drove Brits back to Egypt • El Alamein British held the German advance

  22. Japan and the Pacific • Had been at war with China since ‘31 • Joined Axis in 1940 • Signed neutrality treaty with Soviets in ’41 • Took French possession in Indochina • US cut trade of vital war making material in effort to halt Japanese advance • General Hideki Tojo, new Japanese prime minister publicy stated that Japan would eliminate US and GB influence in Asia • Sent representatives to Washington as he launched attack on Pearl Harbor (12/7/41) • 2, 500 US forces killed • Fleet crippled • Attacked Philippines, Guam, Midway, Hong Kong, Malaya • US and GB declared war on Japan 12/8

  23. The Year of Dismay • Japan took Singapore (supposedly impregnable) • Sunk battleship Prince of Wales (supposedly unsinkable) • Threatened invasion of Australia and attacked Aleutians • Seemed poised to invade India • Under banner of anti imperialism they formed Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere and found ready cooperators • George Marshall noted “how close to complete domination of the world” were Germany and Japan

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