september 1, 1939--germany & soviet union invade poland. (used blitzkrieg strategy)
blitzkrieg technique "lightning warfare"
goal: achieve victory as quickly as possible
germany took over poland, and that's where a lot of the death camps were held.
sitzkrieg-the phony war
period of time during the winter where they weren't really fighting..
Tripartite Pact is signed.. Japan is officially added to the axis powers
main powers-germany, italy, japan
others-albania, bulgaria, finland, romania, thailand, hungary
allied powers=great britain, soviet union, US, china, france.. canada, australia
large majority of the world did not support the axis powers.
invasion of france- may-june 1940
attacks them through belgium. france focused too much of defensive tactics. they didn't think they were going to win, so they thought they should just surrender and not make a big mess.
taking over of france was a great day for Hitler. he made them surrender the same way germany had to surrender in WWI.
Free French government was led by Charles de Gaulle. (this was the french government we were allied with)
the Vishi government was led by Marshall Batan and were controlled by the Germans. (not good!)
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