inNO+julies+2013+02.28.11+part+1

Global War 'The Second World War 1939 - 45' Part 1 Chapter 1 - From Lightening to Phoney War

Blitzkrieg: The suffering of the Poles: The 'Phoney War'
 * September 1939 Germany's forces invaded Poland
 * Within a month they had defeated the Polish army and taken over half of the country
 * The German's had a special form of warfare, which was 'lightening war' or 'Blitzkrieg' in German
 * The aim of this plan was to conquer the army's defences with a sudden, following with aircraft, tanks and infantry
 * The attack on Poland was started by bombing from aircrafts
 * Roads and railways were blown up, bombed factories and power stations, towns and cities were set on fire.
 * At the same time the German army had crossed the border and was fighting the Polish army
 * The german army had tanks dive bombers and last came their soldiers
 * September 17th, had captured most of Western Poland
 * The Germans and the Soviet Union start working together
 * Made a secret plan that the Red Soviet Union invades Eastern Poland
 * September 28th Poland surrendered
 * Poland was defeated
 * Blitzkrieg meant that everyone was involved in the war not only the soldiers
 * Germans were very harsh
 * End of September 66,000 poles had been killed and at least 200,000 wounded
 * The week before Poland was invaded, France and Britain had promised to defend Poland
 * Two days after duly declared war on Germany
 * It was hard for Britain and France to defend Poland
 * British navy and army were both small
 * France had a large army but wasn't ready for war
 * Britain and France did nothing to stop Germany and the Soviet Union from crushing Poland
 * Instead Britain and France prepared to fight Germany later
 * Both started defending themselves from Germanys bomings
 * At night there were black outs and people weren't allow to use flashlights
 * Everyone carried about gas masks
 * the next 9 months was when the 'Phoney war' took place

Chapter 2 - The Fall of Western Europe Germany attacks Norway: Germany attacks the West: The Fall of France Britain Alone
 * 'Phoney War' ended when Germany attacked Norway in April 1940
 * Germany attacked cause Britain was trying to stop iron from being shipped to Germany
 * Norway shipped their iron to Sweden and Sweden would ship it to Germany
 * Germany needed this iron to make their weapons, and couldn't survive without
 * German forces captured Narvik, Trongheim and Bergen
 * At the same time German forces invaded Denmark for supply bases
 * Britain tried to stop German from invading Norway
 * But... British army was poorly trained and didnt have the right equipment and failed
 * Even though they did sink many of the German ships
 * Forced to retreat
 * The British Prime Minister was blamed for the British defeat
 * Forced to resign
 * Winston Churchill took his place and started a National Government
 * Included: Conservative, Labour and Liberal parties
 * A little while after invading Poland, Hitler ordered attack on western Europe.
 * His aim was to destroy France and force the British to surrender
 * On May 10th 1940 the attack called Operation Yellow began
 * Using Germany's previous plan the 'blitzkrieg' they invaded Holland and Belgium
 * Defeated both within 3 weeks
 * Then invaded France
 * France had to retreat to Dunkirk
 * Germany had broken through all of the first lines
 * France and Britain sent up a plan to flee on ships and crafts
 * British army was also very quick at leaving France
 * They left many of their weapons behind and also left about 150,000 British soldiers
 * Which would now become German soldiers
 * Now that Britain was finally out of France
 * They planned another attack
 * On June 10th Hitler's ally, Mussolini of Italy declared war on France and the Italian army invaded
 * France quickly surrendered and Prime Minister resigned
 * Replaced by Marshal Petain governed the south
 * Germany had control over northern and eastern France
 * Less than a year Germans had conquered six European countries
 * Only Britain was still at war with Germany
 * Hitler offered to make peace
 * Britain rejected offer
 * Therefore Hitler ordered a larger invasion on Britain
 * British weren't prepared for this, over a million men joined the Home Guard

Chapter 3 - Battle over Britain Operation Sealion: The Battle of Britain: The Blitz:
 * When Churchill had rejected Hitler peace plan --> Hitler invaded England and made a new plan
 * Operation Sealion
 * German armies were gathered around French and Belgian ports
 * German soldiers were put onto a ship and started sailing towards England
 * The Luftwaffe was a German air plane, had to make sure the British didn't sink the invasion ship
 * Luftwaffe began its work on July 10, 1940
 * Bomber planes attacked the British ships and bombed a few channel ports
 * German air forces was out numbering the British with alot, looked like Germany would smash the British
 * But... the Luftwaffe wasn't as powerful as expected
 * The British air forces were called British Royal Air Force (RAF)
 * The Luftwaffe had same amount of people as the RAF but couldn't stay in the air for more than 30 min
 * This meant that the German forces were limited to how fast they could hit their targets
 * RAF could stay in the air for much longer
 * August 15, the Luftwaffe began an all-out attack on Britain trying to destroy the RAF
 * From August 15 to September 7, all over England air war was going on
 * Start of September the Luftwaffe had defeated the RAF
 * After defeating the RAF Hitler ordered the Luftwaffe to attack London
 * RAF was given the chance to rebuild
 * 1 week later Luftwaffe attacked London
 * RAF had new plans and was able to damage the Luftwaffe
 * Luftwaffe switched to only night time bombings
 * Hitler realized that he couldn't risk another invasion, so canceled the invasion of Britain
 * Britain was safe from Germany
 * September 7th and onwards, Luftwaffe was dropping bombs on London and other British cities
 * Bombed railways, ports, houses, factory areas
 * Attacks went on until May 1941 - known as the blitz
 * British had made preparations if they were to be bombe called the 'Air Raid Precautions' (ARP)
 * Everyone was given gas masks
 * Air Raid shelters were built
 * Air Raid sirens were also installed
 * To make it harder for the Germans to aim during the night they banned all lights
 * The blitz did less damage than expected

Chapter 4 - The Mediterranean War Importance of the Mediterranean: War in the Balkans: War in North Africa:
 * By the summer of 1940 most of Europe was under German control
 * Leaving out the British, the Germans hadn't conquered Britain yet
 * After the British Army had retreated Britain didn't have many choices but to obey Germany
 * Mussolino (dictator of Italy) dreamed about taking over the land around the Mediterranean
 * Make 'Italian Lake'
 * He had taken over a few of the African colonies
 * Britain used the Mediterranean as a trade route
 * To trade with its colonies in the Middle and Far East
 * Protected their routes
 * Hitler didn't really care about the Mediterranean - thought it belonged to Mussolino
 * But he wanted to make the British leave this area
 * 1940 3 countries started to fight for the Mediterranean
 * This centered on mainly two areas --> Balkan states and north-east Africa
 * Mussolini and Hitler had become buddies (allies) in 1936 --> they both signed an agreement --> Rome-Berlin Axis
 * Become the Axis powers
 * Hitler and Mussolini weren't great at communicating and acted upon their own interests
 * When the Italians invaded the high Pindus mountains they weren't ready
 * Poorly led and poorly equipped for fighting in the mountains
 * Greeks were good at fighting in the mountains drove them back into Albania
 * Nov 1940 Britain attacked Italy
 * At the Tarantoharbor, damaging five warships
 * Italy withdrew leaving the British to take over
 * Mussolini was in trouble and Hitler decided to help him
 * Scared that Britain would cut off Germany's supply for oil
 * Hitler put pressure on Balkan to join Axis
 * Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria joined
 * December 1940 Romanian troops were sent to protect Germany's oil
 * Germany invaded Yufoslavs for not joining the Axis
 * At the same time they also invaded Greece
 * Forced to retreat
 * End of April Germany have taken over most of Greece
 * All Balkan states were under the Axis's control
 * September 1940 Italian troops invaded Egypt
 * British attacked Italian base at Sidi Barrani
 * Defeated Italians because it was a surprise for them
 * By Feb 1941 British had destroyed ten Italian armies
 * + advanced 800 km
 * O.Connor (British General) conquered the rest of Italy's colonies in North Africa
 * Sent troops to defend Greece from Germany
 * Same time Hitler sent troops to help retreating Italians
 * British had to withdraw
 * June 22 Germany invaded Soviet Union

Summary: In September German invaded Poland, their major plan was called 'Blitzkrieg', after that the 'Phoney war' went on for a long time. During the 1940's German invaded many of the European countries including; Norway, Denmark, Holland, Belgium and France. That summer the Battle of Britain took place and the RAF became stronger and more powerful. The Mediterranean was a popular place during this time, many countries wanted the land around it and was willing to fight for it.

Questions: 1) How did Germany use their plan'Blitzkrieg'? 2) Describe what the 'Phoney War was? What happened during this time? 3) Why/ how did western Europe fall? 4) What was the Mediterranean War and why were they fighting? 5) What was the power of Axis? Who were the first members and who joined?

Timeline: the time line I made was suppose to me connected to make on long timeline, but I couldn't. Each part represents that part in the textbook.

This is a picture of Hitler and Mussolin, the have just singed their agreement and are now allies. They both become part of the Axis powers, main leaders. 

On September 1, 1939, Hitler told the Nazi to invade Poland, their soldiers, air forces and navy all charged Poland. Poland wasn't very prepared for this attack, found it hard to defend them selfs