1. German Aggression
Do Now: Map Activity: The Causes of World War II in Europe, p. 689

2. Read pp.688-93 in you textbook and answer the following questions in your notebook.
PATH TO WAR
What was Hitler’s first step towards the unification of all German speaking people? What was the result?
What was the Munich Crisis? How did the European leaders deal with this problem?
What problems arose from Hitler’s demand for Danzig?
What did Germany and the Soviet Union each stand to gain by the Nazi-Soviet Pact?
What regions did Hitler take or demand in the lead up to the war?
THE WAR BEGINS
What event led to the official declaration of war on Germany by England and France?
What was new type of warfare used by Germany against Poland? Explain the technique?
Why was the decision to leave French forces behind the Maginot Line disastrous for Europe?
Why did France fall so quickly to German troops?
Why was the Battle at Dunkirk so important to the Allies?
How was Britain able to resist Hitler and the Nazis?
In what ways did Winston Churchill prove to be an effective leader for Britain as the war began?

3. Aggression in Europe Map Instructions
Label the countries of Europe
Color Germany one color
Color each territory taken by Germany between 1933 and 1941 a separate color.
Make a key showing each country, its color, and the year it fell to Germany.

4. Germany retakes the Rhineland
In 1936 Germany sent troops into the Rhineland, which had been demilitarized under the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles.
The purpose of remilitarization was to show the public in Germany that Hitler was 'putting right' the wrongs of Versailles and also in order to build military installations and fortifications there.

5. Anschluss - Annexation of Austria
the Austrian Chancellor was bullied into canceling a vote on union with Germany, which he expected Austrians to oppose.
He resigned his office and ordered the Austrian army not to resist the Germans.
The Germans invaded on March 12 and the enthusiasm shown by Austrians persuaded Hitler to annex Austria outright the next day.
France and Britain protested Hitler's methods, they and other countries accepted the fait accompli.

6. Munich Agreement - Appeasement
In September 1938, Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister, met with Hitler
Hitler threatened to invade Czechoslovakia unless Britain supported Germany's plans to takeover the Sudetenland.
Desperate to avoid war Chamberlain and Edouard Daladier (France) agreed that Germany could have the Sudetenland.
In return, Hitler promised not to make any further territorial demands in Europe.

7. Munich Agreement - Appeasement
On 29th September, 1938, Adolf Hitler, Neville Chamberlain, Edouard Daladier and Benito Mussolini signed the Munich Agreement which transferred the Sudetenland to Germany.
In March, 1939, the German Army seized the rest of Czechoslovakia.

8. GERMAN-SOVIET PACT
The German-Soviet Pact (Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact) had two parts.
An economic agreement, signed on August 19, 1939, provided that Germany would exchange manufactured goods for Soviet raw materials.
Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union also signed a ten-year nonaggression pact on August 23, 1939, in which each signatory promised not to attack the other.

9. Germany Invades Poland
Britain and France guaranteed the integrity of the Polish state.
The German-Soviet Pact stated that Poland was to be partitioned between the two powers, enabled Germany to attack Poland without the fear of Soviet intervention.
On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. The Polish army was defeated within weeks of the invasion.

10. War In Europe
3 September Britain and France were forced to declare war after Germany ignored their separate ultimatums demanding the withdrawal of German troops from Poland.

11. Do Now:
Primary Source Analysis: The Battle of Britain, 1940 p. 692

12. Denmark and Norway
April 9 – Germany invades Denmark King Christian X, convinced his army could not fight off a German invasion, surrendered almost immediately.
German warships enter major Norwegian ports, from Narvik to Oslo, deploying thousands of German troops and occupying Norway.
Hitler now added a second and third conquered nation to his quarry, which began with Poland.

13. The Low Countries (The Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg)
Possession of the Low Countries would give Nazi Germany not only vast industrial resources and advance bases for coming assaults on France and Britain.
With Belgium in his hands Hitler could outflank the vaunted defensive Maginot Line
He could then move into France across the unfortified Belgian border.

14. The Battle of France 10 May 1940
The battle consisted of two main operations.
Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) German armored units pushed through the Ardennes, to cut off and surround the Allied units that had advanced into Belgium.
Fall Rot (Case Red) executed from 5 June, German forces outflanked the Maginot Line to attack the larger territory of France.

15. Dunkirk
Operation Dynamo was the name given to the evacuation from Dunkirk conducted from 27 May to 4 June, 1940.
In nine days, 338,226 French and British soldiers were taken off the beach by a ragtag fleet of over nine hundred vessels.

16. France Falls An armistice was signed 25 June 1940 at Compiègne
Under its terms the north and west of France were occupied by the German Army
the remaining one third of the country was ruled by a French government located at Vichy and headed by aging Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain.

17. The German occupation of France occurred during the period between May 1940 and December 1944.

18. The Battle of Britain
the German Air Force (Luftwaffe) during the summer and autumn of 1940 tried to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force (RAF)
the first major campaign to be fought entirely by air forces.
It was the largest and most sustained bombing campaign attempted up until that date.
The failure of Nazi Germany to destroy Britain's air defense or to break British morale - is considered both its first major defeat and a crucial turning point in the war.