They also decided to invade Poland and split the land. Germany and the Soviet Union invaded Poland with a never before seen tactic called Blitzkrieg which means Lightning War. This tactic was to take major offensive against your enemies quickly and furiously to overwhelm and defeat your enemies as fast as possible.
The Axis forces invaded with air strikes, Panzer divisions, and assault convoys. They attacked airfields and communication centers so that the Polish would be unable to communicate with each other for military defense, and communication was impaired with other countries that could come to Polish aid.
The result of the invasion was absolute. People saw Germany as an unstoppable force, especially since they defeated France in just a month. Sitzkrieg- The Phony War; this was the period of time during the winter months that countries in Europe did nothing after declaring war. Americans saw this as a phony or fake war. Sitzkrieg in German means “sitting war”. Countries wanted to wait out the cold miserable winter months and spent this time building up their militaries.
While all of this is happening, Winston Churchill was redeemed as a hero because before the war he had tried telling people that they needed to take Hitler out of business. Churchill was appointed Prime Minister of Great Britain and is known as one of the greatest British generals in history.
The Vichy government was formed from the city of Vichy in France. The Vichy government was the government that Hitler allowed to assume control after he had defeated France. The Free French Underground (FFU) was led by Charles de Gaulle. The FFU was based in Great Britain and was operated to fight off the German oppression and to free France. De Gaulle later became the leader of France and became a very famous leader.
Nazi goals to get Great Britain:
1. Destroy the Royal Air Force before the invasion.
2. Attack and destroy the British Navy.
3. Attack British troops.
The Germans never succeeded in destroying Royal Air Force. German bombers did so poorly against the RAF that they had to stop bombing during the day and only bomb at night. Great Britain was aided by radar and Ultra.
Ultra was a heavily classified operation until about the 1970’s Ultra was the code name for a code system that Great Britain was able to use to intercept and decode German diplomatic and military messages. The British used this to find out exactly where and when the Germans would attack and the British could attack and prevent attack before the strikes took place.
British was the focal point for the war after France fell to Germany. Who knows where we would be today if Great Britain had lost? You have to hand it to those Brits, they knew what they were doing.
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