1. The Battle for France and Britain
The Start of WWII
The Battle for France and Britain

2. A Quick Refresher
Neville Chamberlain says “Tisk tisk Hitler you have taken too much land, promise me you will not invade Poland and I’ll cut you some slack for breaking the treaty of Versailles”
Hooray for appeasement!

3. Hitler “nah I’ll invade anyway”
Then proceeded to invade from four directions and took Poland in a matter of days.

4. Joseph Stalin
The soviets had also invaded Poland but did not stop there they moved into the Baltic Republics and then Finland.
Why? To regain territory lost from WWI
To stop any future invasions from Hitler
Invasions in Baltic Republics were not as easy as expected.

5. So now what?
Hitler’s now forced Britain to declare war by going against the appeasement
Britain still in a state of recovery is not ready for war declares war on September 1st 1939 as soon as Germans unleash Blitzkrieg on Poland
In 1940 both Britain and France were now formally at war with Germany but actually battles had been fought.

6. Naval Blockade
The British were activly using their Navy in patrolling the water for German shipping boats
Their biggest success was the destruction of the Battleship Graf Spee in Montevideo
The lack of fighting was a blessing in disguise

7. Blitzkrieg LIGHTING WARFARE THREE PRONGED ATTACK!!
What you need for Blitzkrieg is: Air, Tank, Man power
Bomb communication stations and parachutists dropped behind enemy lines
Armored spearhead:, tanks and infantry punch a hole in the weakest part of enemy front lines

8. The Invasion of France
The Allies expected Germany to go through Belgium the same way they did in WWI, Schlieffen Plan
They created a line along the Meuse and Dyle rivers

14. Paratroopers dropped into Berlin
Berlin had no chance against the highly advanced German army
Germans owned the skies of Holland. Which no competition the Luftwaffe was able to continuously bomb Holland making it easy to ground troops to take over.

15. The Ardennes Fall Gelb (Case Yellow) May 10th 1940
The Germans did the impossible and push their tanks and military flanks through the Ardennes soldiers and slipped by British and French stations

16. Guderian’s 116th Panzer Corps
They raced for the channel coast.
In eight days they covered 151 miles and had 1/3 of the French army and the BFE’s 10 division surrounded.
Britain made one attempt to attack the long German corridor
The long line made it hard for communications and Germans needed to slow down to allow foot soldiers to catch up

18. Operation Dymano -The plan to withdraw the BEF by sea from Dunkirk
-A fleet of destroyers, tugs and passenger ferries crossed the English Channel
-Because the port was under such heavy siege they had to ask merchants to lend any shallow hauled boats to pick up men because the destroyers could not get close enough

19. The Fall of France
June German forces had overwhelmed the Maginot line and arrived to a undefended Paris.
June 18th German commanders met with French officials with the goal of the new French government to work with German Government

20. Occupied France -Germany occupied North and West
-Italy controls a small area south east
Unoccupied zone was governed by the newly formed Vichy government (led by Marshal Pétain)