Monday - How did the world react to the pact?
- Shock
- Poland was stuck "between a rock and a hard place"
- Hitler thought it would force GB and France to back out of their promise to help Poland if attacked
Blitzkrieg-Lightning War
- Air force attacks enemy front-line and rear positions, main roads, airfields, and communication centers. Infantry attacks on the frontline and engages enemy
- Tank(panzer) units breakthrough main lines of defense and advance deeper into enemy territory
- Infantry attacks enemy flanks in order to link up with other groups to complete the attack and encircle enemy
- Machanized groups go deeper into the enemy territory outflanking the enemy positions and preventing withdrawing troops and defenders from effective defensive positions
- Main force links up with other units cutting off the enemy
- Goal was to get victory ASAP
Stizkreig-The Phony War-Winter 1939/1940
Hitler takes over ... Netherlands, Belgium, Luxemburg
Dunkirk - 340,000 Troops evacuated
France Surrenders - June, 1940
A Divided France - The Vichy Government, Leader - Henri Petain
Axis Invasion of the Balkans - 1941
Tuesday - Nazi Goals for Battle of Britain
- Destroy the Royal Air Force (before invasion was possible-hopefully by 9-15)
- Attack and destroy the British Navy
- Attack British troops
- Once air control was gained, the invasion of GB would begin
** Germany never succeeded in achieving #1
** German bombers did so poorly against the RAF that they started bombing at night only
** Great Britian was aided heavily by the radar and Ultra
Battle of Britain-The Blitz-September 1940-May, 1941
Luftwaffe - German Air Force
Results - In May, 1941, Germnay decided to focus on attacking British ships and ports and thus stopped attacking cities
- British losses-around 40,000 civilians dead, 46,000-139,000 injured
- German losses - 3,363 aircrew and 2,265 aircraft
Wednesday - German Invasion of USSR - June, 1941
- Final Plan for Operation Barbarossa
Scorched Earth Policy
- Stalin demanded this of the Soviet troops as they retreated
- Burning everything so that Germans could not take advantage of food/resources
Battle for Moscow
- The Soviet Winter Counteroffensive December 6, 1941 - April 30, 1942
- The Russian winter sets in and make is a huge turning point in the war
Battle of Stalingrad: August 1942-February 1943
- More than 1,830,000 killed or wounded
- More than 11,400 casualties each day
- The biggest defeat in the histroy of the German Army
- The turning point not only on the Eastern Front, but also the turning point of the whole of WWll
Siege (encircling) of Leningrad
- On August 30th 1941, the Germans took over Leningrad's railroads, cutting them off from the rest of Russia and the world
- Unlike the Battle of Stalingrad, the Germans surrounded the city to starve the city into submission
- Between November 1941 and October 1942, 641,000 people died of starvation
- People resorted to eating rats, wallpaper paste and some resorted to cannibalism
- A successful Russian counter-offensive at Stalingrad forced the Germans to move troops there and eventually, the siege failed
- The Germans never took Leningrad, but it was one of the most costly conflucts Russia had ever faced-over one million died
The North Africa Campign: June, 1940-May, 1943
Operation Torch-November, 1942 - US and British forces invade North Africa
- By May, 1943, Axis forces surrendered in North Africa
- The campaign would now shift to the islands in the Mediterrean Sea and Italy
The Atlantic Wall - Designed to slow down invasion from the allies of GB to France
Thursday - No School
Friday - No School
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