WWII

At this point, as you recall from Chapter 31, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin signed a

ten-year nonaggression pact with Hitler. After being excluded from the Munich

Conference, Stalin was not eager to join with the West. Also, Hitler had promised

him territory. In a secret part of the pact, Germany and the Soviet Union agreed to

divide Poland between them. They also agreed that the USSR could take over

Finland and the Baltic countries of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.

Germany’s Lightning Attack After signing this nonaggression pact, Hitler

quickly moved ahead with plans to conquer Poland. His surprise attack took

place at dawn on September 1, 1939. German tanks and troop trucks rumbled

across the Polish border. At the same time, German aircraft and artillery began a

merciless bombing of Poland’s capital, Warsaw.

France and Great Britain declared war on Germany on September 3. But

Poland fell some time before those nations could make any military response.

After his victory, Hitler annexed the western half of Poland. That region had a

large German population.

The German invasion of Poland was the first test of Germany’s newest mili-

tary strategy—the blitzkrieg (BLIHTS•kreeg), or “lightning war.” It involved

using fast-moving airplanes and tanks, followed by massive infantry forces, to

take enemy defenders by surprise and quickly overwhelm them. In the case of

Poland, the strategy worked.

The Soviets Make Their Move On September 17, Stalin sent Soviet troops to

occupy the eastern half of Poland. Stalin then moved to annex countries to the

north of Poland. Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia fell without a struggle, but

Finland resisted. In November, Stalin sent nearly one million Soviet troops intoFinland. The Soviets expected to win a quick victory, so they were not prepared for

winter fighting. This was a crucial mistake.

The Finns were outnumbered and outgunned, but they fiercely defended their

country. In the freezing winter weather, soldiers on skis swiftly attacked Soviet posi-

tions. In contrast, the Soviets struggled to make progress through the deep snow. The

Soviets suffered heavy losses, but they finally won through sheer force of numbers.

By March 1940, Stalin had forced the Finns to accept his surrender terms.

The Phony War After they declared war on Germany, the French and British had

mobilized their armies. They stationed their troops along the Maginot

(MAZH•uh•NOH) Line, a system of fortifications along France’s border with

Germany. There they waited for the Germans to attack—but nothing happened.

With little to do, the bored Allied soldiers stared eastward toward the enemy.

Equally bored, German soldiers stared back from their Siegfried Line a few miles

away. Germans jokingly called it the sitzkrieg, or “sitting war.” Some newspapers

referred to it simply as “the phony war.”

Suddenly, on April 9, 1940, the calm ended. Hitler launched a surprise invasion of

Denmark and Norway. In just four hours after the attack, Denmark fell. Two months

later, Norway surrendered as well. The Germans then began to build bases along the

Norwegian and Danish coasts from which they could launch strikes on Great Britain.In May of 1940, Hitler began a dramatic sweep through the Netherlands, Belgium,

and Luxembourg. This was part of a strategy to strike at France. Keeping theAllies’ attention on those countries, Hitler then sent an even larger force of tanks 40° Eand troops to slice through the Ardennes (ahr•DEHN). This was a heavily wooded

area in northern France, Luxembourg, and Belgium. Moving through the forest, the

Germans “squeezed between” the Maginot Line. From there, they moved across

France and reached the country’s northern coast in ten days.

Rescue at Dunkirk After reaching the French coast, the German forces swung

north again and joined with German troops in Belgium. By the end of May 1940,

the Germans had trapped the Allied forces around the northern French city of Lille

(leel). Outnumbered, outgunned, and pounded from the air, the Allies retreated to

the beaches of Dunkirk, a French port city near the Belgian border. They were

trapped with their backs to the sea.

In one of the most heroic acts of the war, Great Britain set out to rescue the army.

It sent a fleet of about 850 ships across the English Channel to Dunkirk. Along with

Royal Navy ships, civilian craft—yachts, lifeboats, motorboats, paddle steamers,

and fishing boats—joined the rescue effort. From May 26 to June 4, this amateur

armada, under heavy fire from German bombers, sailed back and forth from Britain

to Dunkirk. The boats carried some 338,000 battle-weary soldiers to safety.France Falls Following Dunkirk, resistance in France

began to crumble. By June 14, the Germans had taken Paris.

Accepting the inevitable, French leaders surrendered on

June 22, 1940. The Germans took control of the northern

part of the country. They left the southern part to a puppet

government headed by Marshal Philippe Pétain (pay•TAN),

a French hero from World War I. The headquarters of this

government was in the city of Vichy (VEESH•ee).

After France fell, Charles de Gaulle (duh GOHL), a

French general, set up a government-in-exile in London. He

committed all his energy to reconquering France. In a radio

broadcast from England, de Gaulle called on the people of

France to join him in resisting the Germans:The Battle of Britain

With the fall of France, Great Britain stood alone against the

Nazis. Winston Churchill, the new British prime minister,

had already declared that his nation would never give in. In a

rousing speech, he proclaimed, “We shall fight on the

beaches, we shall fight on the landing grounds, we shall fight

in the fields and in the streets . . . we shall never surrender.”

Hitler now turned his mind to an invasion of Great Britain.

His plan was first to knock out the Royal Air Force (RAF) and

then to land more than 250,000 soldiers on England’s shores.In the summer of 1940, the Luftwaffe

(LOOFT•VAHF•uh), Germany’s air force, began

bombing Great Britain. At first, the Germans

targeted British airfields and aircraft factories.

Then, on September 7, 1940, they began focus-

ing on the cities, especially London, to break

British morale. Despite the destruction and loss

of life, the British did not waver.

The RAF, although badly outnumbered,

began to hit back hard. Two technological

devices helped turn the tide in the RAF’s

favor. One was an electronic tracking system

known as radar. Developed in the late 1930s,

radar could tell the number, speed, and direc-

tion of incoming warplanes. The other device

was a German code-making machine named

Enigma. A complete Enigma machine had

been smuggled into Great Britain in the late

1930s. Enigma enabled the British to decode

German secret messages. With information

gathered by these devices, RAF fliers could quickly launch attacks on the enemy.

To avoid the RAF’s attacks, the Germans gave up daylight raids in October 1940 in

favor of night bombing. At sunset, the wail of sirens filled the air as Londoners

flocked to the subways, which served as air-raid shelters. Some rode out the bombing

raids at home in smaller air-raid shelters or basements. This Battle of Britain contin-

ued until May 10, 1941. Stunned by British resistance, Hitler decided to call off his

attacks. Instead, he focused on the Mediterranean and Eastern Europe. The Battle of

Britain taught the Allies a crucial lesson. Hitler’s attacks could be blocked.The Mediterranean and the Eastern Front

The stubborn resistance of the British in the Battle of Britain caused a shift in

Hitler’s strategy in Europe. He decided to deal with Great Britain later. He then

turned his attention east to the Mediterranean area and the Balkans—and to the

ultimate prize, the Soviet Union.

Axis Forces Attack North Africa Germany’s first objective in the Mediterranean

region was North Africa, mainly because of Hitler’s partner, Mussolini. Despite its

alliance with Germany, Italy had remained neutral at the beginning of the war. With

Hitler’s conquest of France, however, Mussolini knew he had to take action. After

declaring war on France and Great Britain, Mussolini moved into France.

Mussolini took his next step in North Africa in September 1940. While the

Battle of Britain was raging, he ordered his army to attack British-controlled

Egypt. Egypt’s Suez Canal was key to reaching the oil fields of the Middle East.

Within a week, Italian troops had pushed 60 miles inside Egypt, forcing British

units back. Then both sides dug in and waited.

Britain Strikes Back Finally, in December, the British struck back. The result was

a disaster for the Italians. By February 1941, the British had swept 500 miles across

North Africa and had taken 130,000 Italian prisoners. Hitler had to step in to save

his Axis partner. To reinforce the Italians, Hitler sent a crack German tank force,

the Afrika Korps, under the command of General Erwin Rommel. In late March

1941, Rommel’s Afrika Korps attacked. Caught by surprise, British forces

retreated east to Tobruk, Libya. (See the map on page 923.)After fierce fighting for Tobruk, the British began to drive Rommel back. By

mid-January 1942, Rommel had retreated to where he had started. By June 1942,

the tide of battle turned again. Rommel regrouped, pushed the British back across

the desert, and seized Tobruk—a shattering loss for the Allies. Rommel’s successes

in North Africa earned him the nickname “Desert Fox.”

The War in the Balkans While Rommel campaigned in North Africa, other

German generals were active in the Balkans. Hitler had begun planning to attack

his ally, the USSR, as early as the summer of 1940. The Balkan countries of south-

eastern Europe were key to Hitler’s invasion plan. Hitler wanted to build bases in

southeastern Europe for the attack on the Soviet Union. He also wanted to make

sure that the British did not interfere.

To prepare for his invasion, Hitler moved to expand his influence in the Balkans.

By early 1941, through the threat of force, he had persuaded Bulgaria, Romania,

and Hungary to join the Axis powers. Yugoslavia and Greece, which had pro-

British governments, resisted. In early April 1941, Hitler invaded both countries.

Yugoslavia fell in 11 days. Greece surrendered in 17. In Athens, the Nazis cele-

brated their victory by raising swastikas on the Acropolis.

Hitler Invades the Soviet Union With the Balkans firmly in control, Hitler could

move ahead with Operation Barbarossa, his plan to invade the Soviet Union. Early

in the morning of June 22, 1941, the roar of German tanks and aircraft announced

the beginning of the invasion. The Soviet Union was not prepared for this attack.

Although it had the largest army in the world, its troops were neither well equipped

nor well trained.

The invasion rolled on week after week until the Germans had pushed 500 miles

inside the Soviet Union. As the Soviet troops retreated, they burned and destroyed

everything in the enemy’s path. The Russians had used this scorched-earth strategy

against Napoleon.

On September 8, German forces put Leningrad under siege. By early November,

the city was completely cut off from the rest of the Soviet Union. To force a sur-

render, Hitler was ready to starve the city’s more than 2.5 million inhabitants.

German bombs destroyed warehouses where food was stored. Desperately hungry,

people began eating cattle and horse feed, as well as cats and dogs and, finally,

crows and rats. Nearly one million people died in Leningrad during the winter of

1941–1942. Yet the city refused to fall.Impatient with the progress in Leningrad, Hitler looked to Moscow, the capital

and heart of the Soviet Union. A Nazi drive on the capital began on October 2,

1941. By December, the Germans had advanced to the outskirts of Moscow. Soviet

General Georgi Zhukov (ZHOO•kuhf) counterattacked. As temperatures fell, the

Germans, in summer uniforms, retreated. Ignoring Napoleon’s winter defeat 130

years before, Hitler sent his generals a stunning order: “No retreat!” German troops

dug in about 125 miles west of Moscow. They held the line against the Soviets until

March 1943. Hitler’s advance on the Soviet Union gained nothing but cost the

Germans 500,000 lives.

The United States Aids Its Allies

Most Americans felt that the United States should not get involved in the war.

Between 1935 and 1937, Congress passed a series of Neutrality Acts. The laws

made it illegal to sell arms or lend money to nations at war. But President

Roosevelt knew that if the Allies fell, the United States would be drawn into the

war. In September 1939, he asked Congress to allow the Allies to buy American

arms. The Allies would pay cash and then carry the goods on their own ships.

Under the Lend-Lease Act, passed in March 1941, the president could lend or

lease arms and other supplies to any country vital to the United States. By the sum-

mer of 1941, the U.S. Navy was escorting British ships carrying U.S. arms. In

response, Hitler ordered his submarines to sink any cargo ships they met.

Although the United States had not yet entered the war, Roosevelt and Churchill

met secretly and issued a joint declaration called the Atlantic Charter. It upheld

free trade among nations and the right of people to choose their own government.

The charter later served as the Allies’ peace plan at the end of World War II.

On September 4, a German U-boat fired on a U.S. destroyer in the Atlantic. In

response, Roosevelt ordered navy commanders to shoot German submarines on

sight. The United States was now involved in an undeclared naval war with Hitler.

To almost everyone’s surprise, however, the attack that actually drew the United

States into the war did not come from Germany. It came from Japan.