1. Lightning War

2. Question 1 0 Sept 1939: Hitler launched a surprise attack on Poland. 0 Using fast moving airplanes & tanks and massive infantry, Hitler attempted to crush the opposition with overwhelming force. 0 This strategy is known as blitzkrieg, or lightning war.

3. Question 2 0 Shortly after the start of Hitler’s invasion, Britain & France declared war on Germany. 0 However, Poland fell before either country was able to muster a military response. 0 France & Britain prepared for a war, mobilizing their troops and set up at the Maginot Line (a system of defenses along the French/German border.)

4. Maginot Line

5. Question 3 0 On April 9, 1940, Hitler invaded Denmark and Norway, ending the “phony war.” 0 Denmark fell four hours after the attack began. Norway surrendered two months later. German infantry attacking through a burning Norwegian village, April 1940.

6. Question 4 0 In May of 1940, Hitler swept through Holland, Belgium, & Luxembourg. 0 Hitler then traveled through the Ardennes forest, bypassing the Maginot Line. 0 The Germans quickly reached France’s northern coast, then continued north, meeting up with German troops in Belgium. 0 The British and French troops were surrounded. They fled to Dunkirk.

8. Question 5 0 The British spearheaded a massive rescue mission. 0 British civilians and navy personnel crossed the English channel under heavy German fire to help those stranded at Dunkirk. 0 338, 000 men were rescued, including 123,000 French soldiers.

10. Question 6 0 Italy joined the war in June of 1940 (after Dunkirk). 0 They joined at this time because they believed victory would be quick.

11. Question 7 0 France fell in June of 1940, shortly after Dunkirk. 0 The Germans took control of the North and left Marshall Henri Philippe Petain to rule the South. 0 Petain’s headquarters were in in Vichy.

13. Question 8 0 Charles de Gaulle is a French general who fled to London where he set up a government in exile. 0 He organized the Free French military forces that battled the Nazis until France was liberated in 1944.

14. Combatants