WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT TODAY? “THE GERMAN WAY OF WAR” FROM POLAND TO FRANCE SAVED: THE MIRACLE AT DUNKIRK THE VICHY GOVERNMENT.

WHAT ARE WE LOOKING AT TODAY?

• “THE GERMAN WAY OF WAR”

• FROM POLAND TO FRANCE

• SAVED: THE MIRACLE AT DUNKIRK

• THE VICHY GOVERNMENT

WORLD WAR ONE• What was the Schlieffen Plan?

• Why didn’t it work• Describe the speed of the war, or the nature of the war.

THE GERMAN WAY OF WAR: MENTALITY

• Germany is encircled by enemies

• These enemies are resource rich

• In order to win the war, Germany must defeat the enemy and quickly

• German action leading into WWII is rational and calculated

• Hitler sees France as the easiest enemy to eliminate

THE GERMAN WAY OF WAR: POLITICAL MANOEUVRING

• The Pact of Steel (May 1939)

• Continued trust between Germany and Italy• Secret clause: joint military and economic cooperation

• The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact (August 1939)

• Non-Aggressive Pact • Secret clause to divide Poland territorially and divide

Europe into spheres• Left Germany to concentrate on

France and left Russia to

reconquering the Eastern Europe

THE GERMAN WAY OF WAR: BLITZKRIEG

• Literally means Lightening War: (Blitz- Lightening; Krieg- War)

• Heinz Guderian envisioned blitzkrieg as…

German invasion of Poland

OUTSIDE

LEARNING THE BLITZ

Enemy Front Line• Air force attacks enemies

front and rear positions

Enemy Rear Position

• Infantry attacks the entire front line engaging them

Enemy Front Line

Enemy Rear Position

Rear Position

• Tanks and mobile units break through and attack from the back

TANKS

TROOP

TROOP

• Air force provides cover once the tanks breach enemy linesEnemy

TROOP

TROOP

TANKS

BLITZ VIDEO

FROM POLAND TO FRANCE: POLAND

• September 1, 1939

• Germany begins the invasion of Poland• September 3, 1939

• France and Great Britain declare war on Germany• October 6, 1939

• Polish forces surrender after the

Battle of Kock• Germany and USSR divide Poland

Poland surrenders

Germans and Russians meet in Lubin

POLAND TO FRANCE: PHONY WAR

October 1939 to April 1940 a lull in fighting occurs- What were the allies doing to prepare?

FRANCE BRITAIN

• WWI mentality: • Maginot Line• Located army on Franco-

German border• Dug trenches along the

Belgium border

• Sends troops to the continent:• 158,00 men sent to France• Helped reinforce Belgium

border by digging trenches

Hitler decides to end the Phoney War and begins his conquest of Europe…

CHURCHILL BECOMES PM IN MAY 1940

• Churchill pre-WWII

• Enters war cabinet, and then requested PM by King George VI

• Pretty much saved Britain…and possibly the world.

POLAND TO FRANCE: GERMANY CONQUERS EUROPE

• April 9, 1940

• Germany invades Norway and Denmark• Secures northern flank

• May 10, 1940

• Germany invades the

Netherlands and Belgium• Germany uses these territories to

launch its attack on France

Europe before the French Invasion

THE MAGINOT LINE

POLAND TO FRANCE: FRANCE- GERMAN PERSPECTIVE

"The tanks now rolled in a long column through the line of fortifications and on towards the first houses, which had been set alight by our fire. In the moonlight we could see the men of 7th Motorcycle Battalion moving forward on foot beside us. Occasionally an enemy machine-gun or anti-tank gun fired, but none of their shots came anywhere near us. Our artillery was dropping heavy harassing fire on villages and the road far ahead of the regiment. Gradually the speed increased. Before long we were 500 -1,000 - 2,000 - 3,000 yards into the fortified zone. Engines roared, tank tracks clanked and clattered. Whether or not the enemy was firing was impossible to tell in the ear-splitting noise. We crossed the railway line a mile or so southwest of Solre le Chateau, and then swung north to the main road which was soon reached. Then off along the road and past the first houses. The people in the houses were rudely awoken by the din of our tanks, the clatter and roar of tracks and engines. Troops lay bivouacked beside the road, military vehicles stood parked in farmyards and in some places on the road itself.

POLAND TO FRANCE: FRANCE- ROMMEL’S ACCOUNT CONTINUED

Civilians and French troops, their faces distorted with terror, lay huddled in the ditches, alongside hedges and in every hollow beside the road. We passed refugee columns, the carts abandoned by their owners, who had fled in panic into the fields. On we went, at a steady speed, towards our objective. Every so often a quick glance at the map by a shaded light and a short wireless message to Divisional H.Q. to report the position and thus the success of 25th Panzer Regiment. Every so often a look out of the hatch to assure myself that there was still no resistance and that contact was being maintained to the rear. The flat countryside lay spread out around us under the cold light of the moon. We were through the Maginot Line! It was hardly conceivable. Twenty-two years before we had stood for four and a half long years before this self-same enemy and had won victory after victory and yet finally lost the war. And now we had broken through the renowned Maginot Line and were driving deep into enemy territory. It was not just a beautiful dream. It was reality."

Taken from Eye Witness to History: http://www.eyewitnesstohistory.com/index.html

SAVED: THE MIRACLE AT DUNKIRK

• The French Army and British Expeditionary Force cannot mount an effective defense German blitzkrieg

• Allies engage in a fighting withdrawal towards the coast

• Allies are surrounded by advancing German army on May 21, 1940 at Dunkirk

• Britain rushes to evacuate as many troops as possible

• The German command calls a 48 hour halt

• Britain throws up defenses around the city to secure evacuation site

• Over 300,000 men saved

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eN00p9qzf4k&feature=related

VICHY FRANCE:GERMAN VICTORY

• June 14, 1940

• The German enter Paris• Remaining defenses fall quickly

• June 22, 1940

• France sues for an armistice and Germany agrees• Hitler insisted that the armistice be

signed in the very railway car in which Germany had been compelled to admit defeat at the end of World War I

• Germany divides France into Nazi occupied France and Vichy France

German’s enter Paris

Hitler in front of the Eiffel Tower

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pICq35lQ5WY&feature=related

FORTRESS EUROPE

…BRITAIN STANDS ALONE