Daily Objective & Do NowObjective- Create timeline consisting of 5 major events in Hitler’s

offensive

Do Now: Is it better to give in to demands of an aggressor or fight back?

War in EuropeChapter 24 Section 2

I Austria and Czechoslovakia FallA. Union with Austria

• Hitler plans to invade Austria & Czech• Meet with Austrian Chancellor

and bullies him into signing agreement to bring Austrian Nazi’s into his gov’t• Changes mindHitler invades

Austria forcing him to resign

• The Anschluss AKA Union w. Austria is complete• US AND THE REST OF WORLD

DID NOTHING

B. Bargaining for the Sudetenland• Hitler turns attention to Czechoslovakia• Post WWI, Sudetenland inhabited by German speaking ppl was joined into

Czech

• Early on France & GB promise to protect Czech• Hitler promises French premier and GB PM Chamberlain that Czech was him

last demand

• Munich Pact= turned Sudetenland over to Germany w/o shot being fired• Did so to avoid a war

• Winston Churchill believed this to be failure because it began a policy of appeasement• Appeasement= giving up principles to pacify an aggressor

II German Offensive Begins• Hitler did not honor promise to stop expanding the Third Reich and

turned his eye towards Poland

A. Soviet Union Declares Neutrality• Poland, like Czech, had many German

speaking ppl that Hitler claimed he needed to protect from Polish gov’t• Ppl thought he was bluffing because

invading Poland would lead to war w/ Soviet and poss. France and GB who promised aid to Poland

• Hitler took chance and Stalin decides he has more to lose then gain from war• Non aggression pact= SU and Germ

agree not to fight each other• Sign secret pact and agree to split

Poland between them

B. Blitzkrieg in Poland• Invasion of Poland w/ surprise air raids and simultaneous land

invasion was 1st test of new German mil. Strategy: Blitzkrieg• “lightening war”

• Few days after invasion GB and France declare war on Germany• Blitzkrieg works so perfectly that fighting was over before Gb or France could

help

• Soviets attack Poland from east seizing east Poland• Invasion of Poland marks beginning of WWII

C. The Phony War• French and GB troops occupy

Maginot line• System of fortifications along France’s

eastern border w/ Germany• Germans occupy Siegfried Line few

miles away from Maginot line• Blitzkrieg replaces w/ sitzkrieg

(sitting war)• Short lived peace broken by Soviets

who occupy terr. Lost during WWI• Germany invades Norway, Denmark,

Netherlands, Belgium, & Luxemburg

III France and Britain Fight On• Germany threatens to bypass Maginot Line when they invade Belgium

A. The Fall of France•Allied troops in the N were forced to flee across English channel into GB• Italy enters war on Germany’s side and invades France from S•France surrenders giving Hitler control of N France and Nazi puppet gov’t in S

B. The Battle of Britain• Summer of 1940 Germans assemble invasion fleet into GB• Germans launch air war simultaneously because it could not compete with

GB navy

• The Luftwaffe (German AF) took control of skies by destroying Britain's RAF (Royal Air Force)• Battle of Britain extended through fall

• RAF was victorious due to new tech called radar• Accurately plotted flight paths of planes even in darkness