InNo+annielo822+3.3.11

p. 1-9 March 3, 2011
 * War in the West, 1939-41 **

**The Awesome Part**





** Notes **

- 1939, Sep. 1, German forces invaded Poland - defeated Polish army by the end of the month - occupied half the country - //blitzkrieg//, or lightning war, swift mechanized form of warfare
 * __From Lightening to Phoney War__**

- aim was to smash enemy’s defenses with sudden, combined attack with aircraft, tanks, and infantry - attack started by bomber aircraft, destroyed most of Polish Air Force - blew up roads & railways, factories & power stations, and set fire to towns & cities - German forces crossed Polish border to fight them - Began bombing Poles with //Stuka// dive-bombers, then used tanks,then soldiers - 17 Sep, captured most of western Poland - Soviet Red Army invaded eastern Poland, had secret agreement with Germany - Ended Poland’s chance of winning the war, attacked from two sides - 28 Sep, people of Warsaw, capital, surrendered
 * Blitzkrieg**

- //blitzkrieg//- civilians and soldiers were involved in fighting - many women and children died - destroyed and burnt market towns and villages - systematically burnt houses - corpses of men & animals heaped in streets - famished people cut off flesh of dead horses - end of September, 66,000 Poles died, at least 200,000 wounded
 * The suffering of the Poles**


 * The 'Phoney War'**

- A week before the invasion, Britain and France promised to defend Poland against attack - Sep. 3, two days after invasion, declared war on Germany - Difficult for Britain and France to defend Poland - British army and air force were small, France had large army, but not ready to fight - Poland was 1000km away - Didn’t do anything to stop German and Soviet armies - Both prepared to fight Germany in western Europe - British Expeditionary Force was sent to France - French army was placed along the frontier with Germany and Belgium - Civilians defended themselves against German bombing - In Britain, 1.5 million women and children were evacuated to countryside - Air-raid shelters were built, sandbags were put around doorways - Night-time **blackout** forbade people to use lights in the open at night - Carried gas-masks everywhere as defense against poison gas - Next 9 months, no fighting between Britain, France and Germany - French described this as the ‘Odd War’ - British called it ‘**Phoney War’**

- 1940 April, ‘Phoney War’ ended when Germans invaded Norway - Hitler ordered invasion when British Royal Navy laid mines along Norwegian coast - British aimed to stop iron ore being taken by rail and ship from northern Sweden to Germany - Germans got half the iron needed to make weapons from Sweden - Couldn’t afford to have supplies blocked by British - German forces captured Narvik, Trondheim and Bergen on Atlantic coast - Air forces captured Oslo - German forces occupied Denmark as supply bases for invasion of Norway - British tried to stop invasion - Royal Navy attacked & sank German ships - 30,000 British troops went to northern Norway - British were poorly trained & equipped, didn’t have fighter planes - Forced to retreat within weeks - In Britain, majority of parliament blamed Prime Minister, Neville Chamberlain, for defeat in Norway - Refused to support his gov’t, forced him to resign - Replaced by **Winston Churchill**, formed a National Government - Coalition including members of Conservative, Labor, and Liberal parties - Gov’t policy to “wage war, by sea, land, and air, with all our might…” - Aim is victory
 * Germany attacks Norway**

- After invading Poland, Hitler ordered attack on western Europe - Aim was to smash France and force Britian to surrender - Attack code-named **Operation Yellow**, began 10 May 1940 - Used //blitzkrieg// tactics, smashed into Holland and Belgium, won in three weeks - Invaded France through Ardennes mountains, where French least expected - Broke through French defenses, swept through north-east with high speed - Forced British and French armies to retreat to **Dunkirk** on Channel coast - French and Britain organized seaborne rescue operation for ½ million trapped soldiers - Half boarded ships at the harbor - Rest waited on beaches, and volunteers in small vessels ferried them out to larger craft off-shore - 26 May – 4 June, 850 boats ferried 338,226 soldiers - Evacuation was great defeat - 70,000 men killed, wounded, or captured - Survivors left many weapons and vehicles - Abandoned 150,000 French allies - 1/3 million soldiers survived
 * Germany attacks the West**

- Germans launched new attack on French, driving them back - 10 June, Mussolini (Hitler’s ally) declared war on France, Italian army invaded Southern France - Germans advanced, French gov’t fled from Paris - Prime Minister resigned, replaced by retired army general Marshal Petain - Signed an armistice with Germans - By the terms, German occupied northern and eastern France - South was governed by Marshal Petain, based in town of **Vichy**
 * The Fall of France**

- Less than a year, German conquered 6 European nations - Only Britain still at war with Germany - Hitler believed Britain wasn’t in the mood to fight, offered peace on moderate terms - Churchill rejected offer, chose to fight - Hitler ordered invasion of Britain by air, sea and land forces - British prepared to resist invasion - Over a million men joined volunteer defense force, **Home Guard** - Road signs painted out, names of railway stations removed - Campaign to get metal for making tank and planes, used iron railings and aluminum pans - King George VI practiced revolver shooting, said he intended to die there fighting - Britain was determined to stand alone against Germany
 * Britain Alone**


 * __Battle over Britain__**

- Churchill refused peace with Germany - Hitler began preparation for cross-Channel invasion of England - Plan code-named **Operation Sealion**

- Two German armies with 100,000 men, gathered at French and Belgian ports on the Channel - Used fleet of river barges and coastal steamers to transport to England - Vital part was given to air force, the **Luftwaffe** - Task was to win control of airspace over Channel, prevent British Royal Air Force (**RAF**) from sinking invasion craft - 10 July 1940, Luftwaffe began - Bomber planes attacked British ships in Channel, bombed Channel ports - Looked like Luftwaffe would win, had 3000 aircraft against Britain’s 600-700 - Luftwaffe wasn’t as strong as it seemed - Had more bombers than RAF, but same number of fighters, with only enough fuel to operate over southern England for 30 minutes at a time - Meant German fighter attacks were limited to a 150-km radius, RAF fighters were operating over home ground for longer periods - British had chain of radar stations around coast - Allowed prediction of movements of German aircrafts - 15 August, Luftwaffe began all-out attack, tried to smash RAF - For next month, this airplane war was known as Battle of Britain
 * Operation Sealion**

- 15 Aug to 7 Sep, airplane battle - Luftwaffe inflicted great damage, shot down hundreds of fighters - Start of Sep RAF was close to defeat - Airfields were badly damaged, had enough supplies and aircraft but no pilots - Luftwaffe didn’t use this advantage - 7 Sep, Hitler ordered switch of attacks to London, revenge for British air-raids on Berlin - Gave RAF a chance to rebuild and reorganize - Week later, two large groups of German bombers flew over London - RAF broke them up by flying in large, new formations - Luftwaffe lost 60 aircraft in the attack, many damaged - Luftwaffe stopped making air-raids in daylight - Decisive moment in battle of Britain - Meant RAF kept control of air over Britain - Hitler realized couldn’t risk invasion, so cancelled - Britain was safe from invasion
 * Battle of Britain**

- 7 Sep onwards, Luftwaffe bombed London and other cities - Tried to damage communications by bombing railway centers - Bombed factories to disrupt trade and production, housing areas to destroy people’s morale - Went on until May 1941, known as the ‘Blitz’ - British made many preparations against bombing - Civilian defense organization called **Air Raid Precautions** (ARP) was set up - Citizens were issued gas-masks, in case of gas bombs - Air-raid shelters were built - Sirens were installed in each area - Barrage balloons floated above cities, forcing aircraft to fly high to avoid them, reducing chances of hitting targets - Made cities invisible to night-time bombers, ‘blackout’ regulations banned any lights that can be seen from above - From the preparations, Blitz did less damage then people expected - Didn’t destroy morale of population - Didn’t greatly reduce production of factories, transport damage was quickly repaired - Over next 5 years, 3.5 million homes damaged or destroyed by bombs - ¼ million people homeless, 60,595 killed
 * The Blitz**

- Summer 1940, much of Europe was under German control - Only Britain was unbeaten - After retreat of British Expeditionary Force from Dunkirk, Britain couldn’t fight Germans in Europe - For awhile, lull in European war - Only in lands around Mediterranean, British were able to fight
 * __The Mediterranean War__**

- ­Mussolini (ally of Germany) wanted to conquer land around Mediterranean Sea - Wanted to rebuild ancient Roman Empire, and make the Mediterranean into ‘an Italian Lake’ - Libya, North Africa, was already Italian colony, Mussolini recently added Abyssinia and Balkan state of Albania - For British, Mediterranean was ital trade route between Britain and colonies in Middle and Far East - Naval bases at Gibraltar and Malta protected trade route - British army in Egypt protected Suez Canal - For Hitler, Mediterranean less important, agreed it should belong to Italy - Generals wanted to drive out British from bases, for conquest of Egypt and Middle East would help them control Britain’s oil supplies in Iraq and Persia - 1940 onwards, three countries involved in struggle for control of Mediterranean - Struggle centered on two vital areas, Balkan states of south-east Europe and north-east Africa
 * Importance of the Mediterranean**

- Mussolini and Hitler became allies in 1936 from Rome-Berlin Axis - Germany & Italy known as Axis powers - Mussolini was overshadowed by Hitler, didn’t consult him before invading Poland in 1939, forbade Mussolini to attack Yugoslavia in 1940 - Mussolini didn’t like this and acted on his own - Oct 1940, ordered Italian army to invade Greece - Italians invaded across high Pindus mountains, were poorly led and equipped for mountain warfare - Greeks, fighting on own territory, drove them back into Albania - Nov 1940, British aircraft attacked Italian navy in harbor at Taranto, damaged five warships - Mussolini drew rest of fleet to Naples, left British Royal Navy in control of Mediterranean - Mussolini was in trouble, Hitler decided to help him - Feared British would set up RAF bases in Greece and bomb oil-fields in Romania, provided Germany most of its oil - Dec 1940, troops moved to Romania to protect oil-fields, pressured Balkan states into joining Axis - Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria agreed, but Yugoslavs refused, so Germans invaded - April 1941, in 10 days, country surrendered - German invaded Greece - Churchill sent 58,000 soldiers to help Greece, but quickly forced to retreat, and left behind equipment - End of April, Germans occupied most of Greece and forced it to surrender - Balkan states now under Axis control - To strengthen control, Germans captured island of Crete in May 1940
 * War in the Balkans**

- Sep 1940, 300,000 Italian troops invaded Egypt - 36,000 British, Australian, Indian, and New Zealand troops were based - Outnumbered 10:1, British General O’Connor attacked Italian base at Sidi Barrani - Attack took them by surprise and they lost - O’Connor captured Italian bases at Bardia, Tobruk, Benghazi and El Algheila - Feb 1941, British destroyed 10 Italian army divisions, advanced 800 km, taken 130,000 prisoners - Overwhelming victory, nothing left to stop O’Connor from conquering rest of Italian North Africa - Feb 1941, Churchill sent O’Connor’s soldiers to defend Greece against Germans - Same time, Hitler sent General Rommel and German Afrika Korps to North Africa to help retreating Italians - Many British troops in Greece, so Rommel was able to counter-attack - With weeks, driven British back to Egyptian border - Only Australian troops in Tobruk kept positions - Commander of British forces in Africa, General Wavell, tried to stop advance at Halfaya (“Hellfire”) Pass, but had to withdraw after 91 tanks were destroyed - British remained defensive the rest of the year - Middle of 1941, Britain’s chances in Mediterranean war were poor - 22 June, Mediterranean stopped being the main focus of war - Germans invaded Soviet Union - War widened into struggle for world power
 * War in North Africa**

Summary
Germany conquers Poland with a form of warfare called blitzkrieg, then attacks Norway, then western Europe, aiming to smash France and force Britain to surrender. France lost, and Britain was left alone. Then Germany invaded Britain, but Luftwaffe was unable to win in the sky, so Hitler called off the invasion, but Luftwaffe continued to bomb the British cities, and this was called the Blitz. Then Italy and Germany fight against Britain for control of the Mediterranean in the Mediterranean War, in the Balkan states of south-east Europe and north-east Africa.

**Questions** > > > >
 * 1) Why was the war declared on September 3 between Germany, Britain, and France called the Phoney War?
 * 1) If Hitler didn't order the Luftwaffe to switch its attacks to London, would British have lost the battle?
 * 1) Why did Italy, Germany, and Britain want the Mediterranean?
 * 1) If Churchill didn't send O'Connor's soldiers to help defend Greece, would Britain have won the Mediterranean War?
 * 1) Why did Hitler pressure Balkan states to join the Axis?