In this part of the second World war we will talk about some of major occurrences during the course of the war and how it influenced the war itself. The rest of the major occurrences will be talked about in the second part of this section.
Course of the War
War breaks out in Europe(1939-1940)
On September 1939 Germany invaded Poland after having staged several false flag border incidents as a pretext for invasion. The first of many onslaughts came against the Polish in Westerplatte. The UK responded with an ultimatum to Germany to stop military operation and on 3rd September 1939, the ultimatum was ignored. In response Britain and France declared war on Germany, followed by Austria, New Zealand, and Canada. The allies did not provide direct military support to Poland. They tries naval blockades of Germany in order to cut down its economy. Germany responded with a U- boat warfare which would later escalate to the battle of the Atlantic.
On 8th September 1939, the German troops reached the borders of the Polish capital, Warsaw. The Polish defences held back the city for several days, but fell to the the Wehrmact. On 17th September the Soviet Union attacked from the east after ceasefire with Japan. This was in accordance to a secret pact between Hitler and Stalin. Finally, on 27th September 1939 the Warsaw garrisons surrendered to the Germans, and the last operational unit surrendered on 6th October 1939.
Germany annexed the western part of Poland while the Soviet Union took the Eastern part. Small territories were given to Lithuania nad Slovakia. On 6th October Hitler made a public peace overture to the UK and France stating that the future of Poland will be in the hands of Germany and the Soviet Union alone. This overture was rejected and Hitler declared an immediate attack of France. However, due to bad weather this was postponed to 1940.
Meanwhile, Nazi-Soviet political rapprochement and economic co-operation gradually stalled, and both states began preparations for war.
Western Europe(1940-1941)
In April 1940, Germany invaded Denmark and Norway to protect its shipments from Sweden which the Allies were trying to cut off. Denmark was captured in an extraordinary few hours, and Norway in a few months. Due to British discontent on the Norwegian campaign, Winston Churchill was appointed Prime Minister on 10th May 1940.
On the same day, Germany launched an offensive against France. To avoid the Strong defensive line along the french border, called the Marginot Line; Germany directed its attack at Belgium, Netherlands and Luxemborg. The Germans carried out a flanking tactic trough the Ardennes region where the French did not install any fortifications thinking it to be naturally impenetrable. The Panzer tanks ploughed trough the Ardennes and encircled the Allied forces in Belgium. This tactic came to be known as Blitzkrieg. Although the UK was able to evacuate a significant number of troops across the channel, it was a devastating loss for the Allies.
On 10th June, Italy invaded France, along with the Germans. The Germans turned south against the weak French army and Paris fell on 14th June. On 22nd June France signed an armistice with Germany. France was divided into the German and Italian zones. France had now become a puppet state of the Axis powers.
The UK was close to defeat, and Germany knew it. In early July the German Air Force, the Luftwaffe attacked the shipping and the harbours of the UK, after it rejected Germany's peace offer. This came to be known as the Battle of Britain. Even after being overwhelmingly superior to the British RAF, the Luftwaffe could nor defeat it. Later on Germany started a strategic bombing of British cities, but failed to disrupt the British war efforts and the bombing largely ended in May 1941.
In November 1939, the United States was taking measures to assist China and the Western Allies and amended the Neutrality Act to allow "cash and carry" purchases by the Allies. In 1940, following the German capture of Paris, the size of the United States Navy was significantly increased. In September the United States further agreed to a trade of American destroyers for British bases. Still, a large majority of the American public continued to oppose any direct military intervention in the conflict well into 1941.[104] In December 1940 Roosevelt accused Hitler of planning world conquest and ruled out any negotiations as useless, calling for the United States to become an "arsenal of democracy" and promoting Lend-Lease programmes of aid to support the British war effort.[98] The United States started strategic planning to prepare for a full-scale offensive against Germany.
At the end of September 1940, the Tripartite Pact formally united Japan, Italy, and Germany as the Axis powers. The Tripartite Pact stipulated that any country, with the exception of the Soviet Union, which attacked any Axis Power would be forced to go to war against all three. The Axis expanded in November 1940 when Hungary, Slovakia and Romania joined. Romania and Hungary later made major contributions to the Axis war against the Soviet Union, in Romania's case partially to recapture territory ceded to the Soviet Union.
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