-
Period: to
German Expansion Timeline
-
Hitler secretly meets with his top military Advisers
He boldly declared that to grow and prosper Germany needs the land of its neighbors which is the start of the German uprise and the beginning of a bad era. -
Austria and Czechoslovakia fall
Hitler had a plan to absorb Austria and Czechoslovakia into the Third Reich, On March 12, 1938, German troops marched in Austria unopposed because of the 6 million Germans that lived in Austria which then helped Germany Union with Austria. -
Bargaining for the Sudetenland
Hitler then goes to Czechoslovakia because in order to provide living space for Germans he has to annex Czechoslovakia. Hitler felt Czechs were abusing the Sudeten Germans so he began putting troops on the Czech border. France and Britain promised to protect Czechoslovakia, so just went war felt unstoppable Hitler invited French premier Edouard Daladier and British prime minister Neville Chamberlain to meet with him. They Gave Hitler his "last territorial demand" by signing a Munich Agreement. -
The German Offensive Begins
As Churchill had warned, Hitler was far from finishing the Third Reich. As dawn broke on March 15, 1939, German troops poured into what was left of Czechoslovakia. At nightfall, Hitler gloated, "Czechoslovakia has ceased to exist". After that, the German dictator turned to Germany's Eastern neighbor, Poland. -
The Soviet Union Declares Neutrality
As tension rose over Poland, Stalin surprised everyone by a nonaggression pact with Hitler because just like in Czechoslovakia there was a sizeable amount of German-speaking people, and going to war would mean war against France and Britain and would end up be a remake of WWI where Germany had to fight on two fronts. With Poland in the hands of Germany and with the two-front war not being an issue the fate of Poland was sealed. -
Blitzkrieg In Poland
As day broke on September 1, 1939, the German Air Force, roared over Poland dropping bombs on military bases, airfields, railroads, and cities. As tanks hit the ground spreading terror and confusion, this was the first test of Germany's new war tactic " the Blitzkrieg" or lightning war. Germany used faster tanks and powerful aircraft to catch their enemy by surprise, which ended up giving them an even bigger problem with Britain and France, something that Hitler wanted to avoid. -
The Phony War
For the next several months after the fall of Poland, French and British troops on the Maginot line, staring into Germany waiting for something to happen. All it was, was a staring game and Germany created a new tactic called sitzkrieg or ("sitting war") which then made newspapers call this a Phony War. On April 9, 1940, Hitler launched a surprise invasion of Denmark and Norway in order to protect those countries but in truth, he wanted to build bases along the coast to strike at Great Britain. -
The Fall Of France
The German offensive trapped almost 400,000 British and French Soldiers as they fled to the beaches of Dunkirk on the French side of the Engish Channel. A few days later Italy joined the war beside Germany and Invaded France from the South as the Germans closed in on Paris in the North. On June 22, 1940, at Compiegne, William Shirer and the rest of the world watched as Hitler handed French officers his terms of surrender. Germans would take Northern France and Marshal Petain took Vichy, France. -
The Battle Of Britain
In the Summer of 1940 the Germans began to assemble an invasion fleet along the French coast, because its a naval power could not compete with that of Britain, Germany also launched an air war at the same time. The Luftwaffe made bombing runs over and over on Britain, they bombed cities, hospitals, small towns, airfields, runways, and other important building, Hitler made sure to take out the RAF so that his troops would have extra backup on the ground. -
The RAF fights back and Germany pulls back off Britain but Still Attacks with bomber planes.
The RAF fought back with everything they had by using a special technological device called radar, which could track the path of the German plans even without sunlight. On September 15, 1940, the British airforce shot down 185 German planes and lost only 26 of their own. six weeks later Hitler called off the invasion of Britain and many of Britain's people were proud of their airforce. German bombers still continued to drop bombs on Britain cities which made British bombers bomb German cities.
