World War II begins

GERMANY DEMANDS, EUROPE CONCEDES
In February 1938, Adolf Hitler threatened to invade Austria unless Austrian Nazis were given important government posts. In March 1938, Hitler announced the Anschluss, or unification, of Austria and Germany.

Hitler claimed the Sudetenland, an area of Czechoslovakia with a large German-speaking population. Czechs strongly resisted Germany’s demand for the Sudetenland.

France, the Soviet Union, and Britain threatened to fight Germany if it attacked Czechoslovakia. At the Munich Conference on September 29, 1938, Britain and France, hoping to prevent another war, agreed to Hitler’s demands in a policy known as appeasement.

In March 1939, Germany sent troops into Czechoslovakia, bringing the Czech lands under German control.

Hitler demanded the return of Danzig—Poland’s Baltic Sea port. He also wanted a highway and railroad across the Polish Corridor. These demands convinced the British and French that appeasement had failed.

In May 1939, Hitler ordered the invasion of Poland by the German army.

On August 23, 1939, Germany and the USSR signed a nonaggression treaty, with a secret agreement to divide Poland.

THE WAR BEGINS
On September 1, 1939, Germany and the USSR invaded Poland. On September 3, Britain and France declared war on Germany—starting World War II.

The Germans used a blitzkrieg, or lightening war, to attack Poland. The Polish army was defeated by October 5.

On April 9, 1940, the German army attacked Norway and Denmark. Within a month, Germany overtook both countries.

After World War I, the French built a line of concrete bunkers and fortifications called the Maginot Line along the German border. When Hitler decided to attack France, he went around the Maginot Line by invading the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg. The French and British forces quickly went into Belgium, becoming trapped there by German forces.

By June 4, about 338,000 British and French troops had evacuated Belgium through the French port of Dunkirk and across the English Channel, using ships of all sizes.

On June 22, 1940, France surrendered to the Germans. Germany installed a puppet government in France.

GERMANY VS BRITAIN
Hitler thought that Britain would negotiate peace after France surrendered. He did not anticipate the bravery of the British people and their prime minister, Winston Churchill. On June 4, 1940, Churchill delivered a defiant speech that rallied the British people and alerted the United States to Britain’s plight.

To invade Britain, Germany had to defeat the British air force. In the Battle of Britain, the German air force, the Luftwaffe, launched an all-out air battle to destroy the British Royal Air Force. After German bombers bombed London, the British responded by bombing Berlin, Germany.

The Royal Air Force was greatly outnumbered by the Luftwaffe, but the British had radar stations and were able to detect incoming German aircraft and direct British fighters to intercept them.