24.2 War in Europe

Holland US History II, MATES 2026

Neville Chamberlain

British PM (before Churchill) who signed the Munich Agreement with French PM

Munich Agreement

• annexed Sudetenland to Germany without a single shot fired (Hitler promised this would be his last territorial demand—Chamberlain and French PM agreed to avoid war)

• signed between British and French PM to give Sudetenland to Hitler

Winston Churchill

• British PM after Chamberlain (political rivals)

• warned that agreement was shameful policy of appeasement

appeasement

giving up principles to pacify an aggressor

nonaggression pact (1939)

Stalin signed with Hitler to never attack each other or go to war

What date marks the start of WWII?

September 1, 1939: Germany invades Poland (gets split between Germany and Russia)

blitzkrieg

• “lightning war”

• German military tactic

• massive air + ground attacks for a quick victory

• very overwhelming for the enemy

phony war

• “sitting war”

• standstill between German (Siegfried Line) and French + Great Britain (Maginot Line) lines

• the months that followed the fall of Poland

What ended the phony war?

• (April 1940) Hitler’s invasion of Denmark and Norway as bases to strike Great Britain

• (May 1940) Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg also annexed

Charles de Gaulle

French General fled to Great Britain and set up a government-in-exile

Battle of Britain (summer 1940)

• Hitler bombed London every night for 2 months with Luftwaffe

• Great Britain’s Royal Air Force (RAF) used radar (new tech.) to plot flight plans

• Great Britain also bombed German cities - all civilians suffered

• 1st defeat of Hitler’s forces during WWII