Notes cont.

•September 1, 1939, the beginning of the war, Germany invades Poland employing blitzkrieg tactics

•September 3, Britain, France, Australia and New Zealand declare war on Germany

•In two weeks German soldiers surrounded the Polish capital of Warsaw, it surrendered on the 27th

•On September 17 Soviet soldiers invaded eastern Poland

 

•Blitzkrieg or “Lightning War” was the name given to the new German tactics used in WW2

•It relied on rapid movement and communication between forces

•Germany possessed radios in many vehicles so that soldiers on the ground could communicate with the aircraft flying above

•Commanders identified the crucial points in a battlefield on concentrated there

 

•German Artillery and Aircraft would bombard the enemy before fast moving armoured vehicles would move in to secure positions

•Infantry would accompany the armour but early on was much slower as they relied on horses or their own feet to move around

•Sometimes soldiers at the front would advance so far they would outrun their supplies or be cut off

 

 

•Construction began in 1929

•Was between France and Germany as Belgium was, at the time, in an alliance with France

•In 1936 Belgium broke this alliance

•Underground forts topped with armour and armed with machine guns and multiple sizes of artillery

 

•On May 10th, 1940 Germany began to push into Belgium and Holland

•The Allies also moved into Belgium to set up better defensive positions

•The Allied forces were quickly overwhelmed by the German Blitzkrieg tactics, German had taken Holland and Belgium by the 28th

 

•The BEF (British Expeditionary Force) had been in Belgium to help fight against the Germans but after the Belgian surrender found themselves on the run

•Germany took the northern coast so they could later attack England

•Germany then moved south to take the rest of France, before it could happen, France surrendered

•Over 500,000 British, French and even some Polish troops escaped to England

 

•On June 22 France and Germany signed an armistice on the same rail car that had been used at the end of WW1

•On June 25th the western campaign was over Allied losses were 100,000 killed and 2.2 million taken prisoner, the Germans lost 45,000 killed and wounded

•Germany had taken Belgium, Holland and France in 6 weeks,

 

 

•The air battle that took place between Germany and the UK From July 10 – October 31, 1940

•Approximately 1,000 British pilots were killed or wounded,  4,300 German Pilots were killed, wounded, or taken prisoner

•After taking France Hitler believed Britain would want peace rather than be invaded

•British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, energized the British people against signing an armistice

 

•The British navy still greatly outnumbered and outgunned the German navy

•Hitler’s navy told him that an invasion of England could happen but only if the German air force, the Luftwaffe, enjoyed air superiority

•The German plan “Operation Sea Lion” called for landings on the south coast of Great Britain, but only after the Luftwaffe had swept the RAF (Royal Air Force) from the skies

 

 

•At the outset Germany began targeting shipping convoys and British ports to cut off their supplies

•Germany then shifted their focus to bombing RAF airfields and airplane production centers

•However, one night German bombers accidentally bombed London, the British reacted by bombing Berlin

•Germany then shifted their tactics to bombing British cities, giving the RAF time to recover and eventually defeat the German Luftwaffe

something they couldn’t do in 4 years in WW1