1) The Polish Corridor: Land taken from Germany after WWI (Treaty of

Versailles); gave Poland access to the Baltic Sea.He wanted back ALL German land taken from them after WWI. Importance to Hitler:

• A majority of ethnic Germans lived there (along w/ Poles)

• It had the port city of Danzig (also majority German)

• It would link together Germany and their province of East Prussia.

2) The 1939 Non-Aggression Pact b/t Hitler & Stalin (aka the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact):

• Germany and the USSR would be at peace (temporarily!).• Germany and the USSR would conquer and divide Poland

between themselves. • The USSR would also attempt to take Finland, and the

Baltic States (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania).

3) BLITZKRIEG = “lightning war”

= overwhelming force using rapid mechanized warfare (tanks + planes + troops)

(U.S. equivalent = “shock and awe”)

4) Hitler's European conquests through 1940, before attacking Great Britain:

1938 (pre-war): Austria, Czechoslovakia

1939: Poland (end of appeasement!)

1940: Denmark, Norway, Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg, France

… has control & influence over most of Western Europe (Switzerland neutral, fascist Spain neutral)

5) Maginot Line:

French defensive fortifications along German border.

Ineffective! Germans used blitzkrieg to go around it through Belgium (sound familiar?)

6) Dunkirk (France) 1940:

Retreating British Army (+ some French, Polish) is backed up against the English Channel by the German blitkrieg. A combined military-civilian fleet of boats made repeated trips back & forth across the Channel, under German fire, to save 338,000 Allied soldiers.

7) France falls to Germany in June, 1940:• The Germans occupy & control northern France. • They set up a puppet government (headed by Henri

Philippe Petain) in southern France: the Vichy regime (“Vichy France”).

* France forced to sign the terms of

surrender in the SAME railroad car, in the SAME city, where the Germans had been forced to sign the armistice that ended WWI!

8) French Resistance continues against Nazis: French General Charles De Gaulle (later president) sets up a French government-in-exile in London, and organizes the “Free French” (French resistance) against Nazi-occupied France, including spying and sabotage tactics.

9) Battle of Britain (1940): Four months of intense German air attacks against

Britain (to prepare for a planned invasion).

German Luftwaffe vs. British Royal Air Force (RAF)

Result: decisive British victory, 1st significant defeat for Hitler, who abandons invasion plans (“Operation Sea Lion”), turns

attention instead to the USSR…

10) REASONS for British victory in the Battle of Britain:• British invented use of RADAR, could anticipate and

effectively react to German attacks• British had a smuggled a German

‘Enigma’ code machine, and so could decode secret German messages (unknown by Germany!)

11) North Africa becomes part of the war: The Axis powers wished to seize control of

Egypt, the Suez Canal, and the oil fields of the Middle East beyond that. Britain & the U.S.

will prevent this from occurring.

12) Hitler controls the Balkans:•Bulgaria, Romania, and Hungary joined the Axis Powers under threat of force; Yugoslavia and Greece were invaded and conquered in a matter of weeks.•Hitler was preparing to invade the USSR; having control of SE Europe (the Balkans) was part of that preparation (southern flank would not be exposed, and attacks into the USSR could also be launched from there)

13) Hitler's motivations for breaking the Non-Aggression Pact with Stalin

(OPERATION BARBAROSSA, June 1941):

→ Hates communists & Jews (many in USSR) → Wants Soviet RESOURCES (oil, farmland) → Wants to expand German territory for

“living space” for the “master German race”

(“Lebensraum”)

… never intended to honor treaty!

14) Urban targets in the USSR: NORTH → LENINGRAD (major city, port)

Put under siege; never captured, but > 1 million deaths over 872 days

CENTRAL → MOSCOW (capital… never captured) SOUTH → STALINGRAD (industrial city, located near oil

fields to the south, grain fields to the west)

15) Success of Hitler's invasion of the Soviet Union

Initially: very successful - German blitzkrieg tactics were very effective - Soviet Red Army was unprepared, poorly equipped,

and poorly trained. [Stalin had also purged his top generals the previous year!!!]

Ultimately: a failure Hitler overestimated the speed and success of the

invasion, but was stopped by stiffening Soviet resistance combined with the Russian winter!

[German army had been in summer uniforms, expecting a quick victory]

→ rapid, massive invasion & expansion (1941-1942) → slow collapse & defeat (1943-1945)

16) Hitler’s invasion of the USSR should have come as no surprise… why?

•Hitler published his original intentions of conquering Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union in Mein Kampf… and hadn’t honored any treaties before (i.e. the Munich Agreement)!

•Hitler wanted to buy time to: 1) Attack and conquer Western Europe without having to worry about a two-front war (lesson learned from WWI… at first); 2) Build up his military for a successful blitzkrieg attack on the Soviet Union.

17) W. Europe easier than E. Europe for Hitler…

Reasons for Hitler’s eventual failure in the USSR : → unprepared for the Russian winter, weather, climate

(arrogant: expectations > preparation… ignored lessons of history!)

→ expected a quick victory via blitzkrieg (like France?), but the USSR is a lot bigger

→ met stronger Soviet resistance (underestimated “weaker Slavs” who wouldn’t retreat)

→ USSR had been industrializing (5-year plans!)

18) The U.S. inches from neutrality toward war…

1935-37: Neutrality Acts1939: “cash and carry” allowed Allies to buy U.S.

weapons, but transport on their own ships1941: Lend-Lease Act: U.S. can lend or lease supplies

to any nations “vital” to U.S. interests (i.e. Britain)

1941: U.S. was escorting naval convoys supplying Britain, under attack by German subs (an

“undeclared war” between the U.S. & Germany)

*** 1940: Selective Service Act: first peacetime draft in U.S. history, in preparation for anticipated involvement in WWII!

(Roosevelt & Churchill issued the Atlantic Charter, upholding free trade and political self-determination.)