World War II

The Causes for the Second World War

• People were bitter from the Treaty of Versailles, which caused them to follow populist ideals which led to the rise of many dictators.
• The rise of authoritarian states.
• There was little done to prevent the rise of power of Hitler and Mussolini.
• The Treaty of Versailles caused countries to form sides, as it didn't form a constructive peace.
• The peace treaty from the Great War didn't destroy Germany or make a constructive peace, thus Germany rose back to power.
• Hitler's foreign policy, and Germany's expansion. Similarly with other countries like Japan and Italy.
• Bitterness and grudges from the Great War.
• Failure of the League of Nations and collective security.
• Appeasement policy.

The Beginning of the Second World War

The Invasion of Poland

• After the invasion of Czechoslovakia Hitler was quite confident that Britain and France wouldn't take extreme actions against further expansion.
• Germany framed Poland for a fake incident between border guards at a radio tower and used it to start war on the 1st of September, 1939.
• There was an ultimatum from France and Great Britain telling them to withdraw their armies within 24 hours, but Germany continued the invasion.
• France and Great Britain didn't have any chances to help Poland at the time.
• The Polish military wasn't powerful enough to put up a fight.
• Soon after the invasion from Germany, the Soviet Union began invading from the east.
  
• France and Great Britain declared war on Germany.
• Other than preparing their armies, no events occurred on the western front.
• Arms production was increased and enlisting began.
• British continental armies would move to France.
• France began to expand its defenses on the Belgian border as Belgium was neutral.
• This was a so called "Phoney war".
  
• Germany used Blitzkrieg tactics.
• A very quick form of warfare utilizing cooperation between infantry, tanks and air force, although difficult to maintain and resource-intensive it was a very successful tactic in Poland.
• Poland surrendered in two weeks.
• The USSR occupies Poland's eastern parts and attacks Finland, leading to the Winter War.
• Great Britain and France wanted to support Finland during the Winter War while placing troops in Swedish and Norwegian iron mines, but they didn't allow it.
• Although there were some volunteers like the actor Christopher Lee, no large forces were sent to help Finland.
  

Continuing German Expansion

• Germany wanted to trade with Denmark and Norway.
• They could trade with Sweden for iron, already but Norway's harbors were closer to Great Britain and could be closed off from trade.
• Germany easily invaded Norway and Denmark and thus could prevent meddling from the allies and secure resources.
• The invasion of Denmark is infamous for having lasted only 6 hours before the Danish surrendered.

The Fall of France

• France still had a very mighty military, although somewhat outdated.
• Hitler wanted to take out France in order to avoid a two-front war as he planned to eventually take down the Soviet Union.
• The French border was very strongly fortified, although the Belgian border was far weaker.
• However there was a very dense forest, called the Ardennes forest towards the south of Belgium, so they managed to concentrate most of their forces towards the northern side of the Belgian border.
• Germany attacks the neutral countries Holland and Belgium in May of 1940.
• Through Belgium and Holland they planned to invade France.
• Hitler managed to bring his army through the Ardennes forest, surprising Great Britain and France.
• They counted on the fact that they would stop the invasion and make trenches and blockades, winning through a war of attrition.
• They were still attuned to the tactics of the Great War and had not adapted to the new technologies.
• However blitzkrieg tactics allowed Hitler to very quickly take over France.
  
• British help fails, and there are rescues from Dunkirk in June of 1940.
• Civilian ships had to be used as naval forces would be sunk by German airplanes which couldn't be countered as British planes would be low on gasoline by the time they arrived in France.
• This was mostly successful, however they and to leave a lot of resources which cost them greatly.
  
• France surrenders on the 22nd June, 1940.
• The northern side of France became German territory.
• The southern side was made into a puppet state called Vichy France.

Fighting Against Great Britain

• Hitler didn't want to waste his time on the British, but they would intervene if he continued his invasion of the east.
• The British coast was quite heavily fortified.
• Germany tried to destroy the British air force as then they could invade the British mainland, in the so called "Operation Sea Lion".
• Goering, the leader of the Luftwaffe promised that they would destroy the British air force.
• Both sides would take a lot of casualties, although the Germans taking more in the massive aerial battle that ensued.
• The Battle Britain from July 1941, to October 1941.
• Britain managed to come out victorious although was still too weak to fight Germany in continental Europe.

"Legends" of the Second World War

• Hitler wanted to bomb industrial and military areas, although due to inaccurate bombing, some civilian areas were hit.
• This led the British to bomb German cities as revenge.
• This supposedly made Hitler so angry that he changed his target to civilian areas, which allowed the British air force to recover so that they could win the Battle of Britain.

Operation Barbarossa

• Germany attacks the USSR on the 22nd of June, 1941.
• They aimed to acquire resources and labor, and destroy communism.
• Both Stalin and Hitler knew that an inevitable conflict would occur between Germany and the USSR.
• The USSR had conflicts with Japan and didn't expect the attack so soon.
  
• Italy helped out in the later parts of the war with Germany, as Mussolini was confident about the strength of his military (he shouldn't have been).
• Mussolini wanted to start rebuilding the "Roman Empire" and invaded Greece, Yugoslavia, and French and British territories in northern Africa such as Libya and Egypt, but needed Hitler's help often.
• This is why Hitler began his invasion of the USSR in late summer.

Early Success

• The invasion was initially very successful and the Russian army was in chaos under blitzkrieg.
• Although invading Russia is a very tremendous task.
• This is because of vast distances, Germany had very long supply lines.
• The German generals were counting on the fact that they could live off the land, but as the Soviets retreated, they used "scorched earth" tactics, destroying the lands as they left.
• Killing animals they couldn't take with them, burning buildings, poisoning wells and taking signs.
• Additional attacks on and destruction of supply lines made attacking difficult.

The German War Effort Starts to Wilt

• The German army began failing in the fall.
• Stalin kept civilians in large cities to encourage soldiers to fight harder.
• Heavier resistance from soldiers and civilians.
• Stalin's spies in Japan said that Japan wasn't planning to invade the USSR and Stalin began moving his winter-trained Siberian troops to the west.
• Germany had been counting on a quick victory and was not prepared for a drawn-out conflict during the winter.
• Poor weather in the fall led to muddy roads which were bad for advancing.
• Germany slowly managed to make their way to the outskirts of Moscow.
  
• There were three different fronts for Operation Barbarossa: The Caucasus, Leningrad and Moscow.
• Hitler was very unpredictable and not a good commander.
• He often took unnecessary detours such as the invasion of Kiev, which was of little strategic value but cost time.
• The situation was far worse for Germany now, as their invasion had slowed down greatly and the US joined the war in 1941 due to attack on Pearl Harbor.
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