World War II in the European Theater​(continent)

● September 1,1939. Germany invaded Poland

○ Poland survives for about a month or two
○ Germany takes poland
● September 1939, Britain and France declare war on Germany because they have a
treaty with Poland
● On September 17, 1939, the USSR(Russia) invaded Western Poland.
○ Germany and the Soviet Union had a treaty that divided up eastern
Europe(Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact)
● The Winter War
○ November 1939-March 1940 ​Soviet union attacked Finland.
○ Finnish sniper​ Simo Hayha​ was credited with over 500 kills.(Farmer)(The White
Death). Go hide and wait for the Russians to come by. Built snow forts and put
mound around it. Put water in his mouth and then froze things so the snow would
puft after he shot. Had ice chips in his mouth so the condensation wouldn’t show.
Killed on average 5 people a day. War lasted 100 days. Russians shelled the
forest to kill him.
● On June 15-16, 1940 the USSR invaded Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. Just one week
before the Fall of France to Nazi Germany. Both countries' presidents are shipped off to
islands and killed.
● June 1940, The Soviet occupation of the ​Baltic states and two Romanian provinces.
● April 9,1940
○ Denmark and Norway fall to Germany. Denmark lasted a couple hours and
Norway lasted a couple months.
● “Phony War”
○ September 1939-May 1940.
○ Britain and France just sat there and waited for Germany to attack
○ Germany didn't attack Poland until the Spring because they had other crap to
deal with.
● Maginot Line
○ Defensive line that goes along the French/ German border. Has lots of weapons.
French spent about 30 % of their money building the Maginot Line.
○ Is a good idea except it’s not complete so the Germans just go around it.
○ Didn’t extend into Belgium for political reasons.
● May 10, 1940, The Germans attacked France, Belgium, and the Netherlands.
○ War starts in the west.
○ Blitzkrieg is a fast-moving war using tanks and vehicles. Move quickly and go into
enemies territory and cause some problems.
○ Invented by the Germans. Direct result from trench warfare.
○ When Germany attacks France, the french have more soldiers and tanks but
don’t know how to use them
○ Blitzkrieg
■ Step 1: Attack
 ■ Step 2: Penetrate
■ Step 3: Encircle
● May 14, 1940, Netherlands surrendered
● May 28, 1940 Belgium surrendered.
● May 25-June 3, 1940
○ Dunkirk. England has to retreat back to Britain barely escaping. ​Soldiers
○ The Navy asked people with small boats to get soldiers out and off the beach to
save them . Thousands of boats. British army is saved. Not the weapons but the
soldiers. Most important thing to save is because you can’t rebuild people as
quickly as you can rebuild weapons.
● June 11, 1940, Italy entered the war on the side of the Axis powers. Italy’s motive for
entering the war was the hope of rich pickings from the spoils of war.
● June 22, 1940 France surrenders unconditionally to Germany
○ Hitler finds the train car where the treaty was signed to end WWI. Made the
french go there to sign their surrender to WWII. Then he had the train car and
monument blow up.
○ Hitler took his fav architect, Albert Speer to Paris
● Vichy France 1940 to 1942
○ Set up a puppet govt (vichy france). In southern france. Deal was that the vichy
govt would work with the nazi and exchange, the Nazi wouldn’t do anything to
southern france.
○ Catch 22- both options have bad outcomes.
○ One embarrassment is that the vichy french cooperations with the Germans. The
french government sent their own citizens to concentration camps.
● The only country that didn’t fall during WWII was Britain. Germany controls all Europe
except for England.
○ Germans couldn’t get to England because of the English channel. Can’t go
through or else they sink
● Neutral countries in Europe
○ Portugal, Spain, Switzerland, Sweden, and Ireland.
○ Spain and Portugal stay out because they just got done fighting a civil war.
○ The Spanish govt is real buddy buddy with Hitler.
○ Switzerland stayed out of the war because they were neutral in the first world war
and because they didn’t wanna fight. Switzerland is well defended and has a
good military and would’ve been hard for the Nazis to take
○ Sweden sold stuff to Germany. Sweden made money selling raw materials to
Germany.
○ Ireland just became a country and they got their independence from Britain. They
hate Britain so they’re not gonna help them.
● Civilian Internment
○ Throughout the UK citizens from Germany, Italy, and Austria includin Jews who
had escaped theses countires from Nazi persecution, were rounded up and
trasnferred to the Isle of Man.
● The Battle of Britain
○ The only weapon that Germans can get to Britain is airplanes. The battle of
Britain was an air battle.
○ Luftwaffe(German air force) is large. Britain had a small but hometown
advantage.
○ German sent bombers.
○ Britain starts to lose but then a german plane gets lost at night and drops like 5
bombs on London. The British were like nah and then bombed Berlin, The capital
of Berlin. Hitler got mad and then was like we gonna bomb you much more.
Hitleer starts to attack civilians. Hitler left the airports so Britain had a chance to
regroup and repair their air force.
○ Britain had a “secret” weapon
○ Radar invented by the British.
○ Spitfire. The spitfire and radar allows the British to win the Battle of Britain
● April 1941-Germany took Yugoslavia and Greece
○ Warm weather
● Kl
● Operation Barbarossa: German Invasion of Soviet Union June 22, 1941
○ Germany signed a treaty with Soviet Union to split eastern Europe.
○ Hot weather
○ Hitler expected Russia to fall like France
○ Russia is much bigger than France.
○ When Hitler's armies invaded, Stalin made some mistakes, Russian army had a
problem, not many generals. Stalin misunderstood and shot everyone.
○ Govt of Russia comes up with a plan, gonna trade territory for time.
○ Russia comes up with the idea of moving their factories further east.
■ Brutal process. Dictatorship was the only type of govt that could do this.
○ By October 1941 and January 1942- Battle for Moscow
○ Cold weather
○ Russian army and Russia itself are saved by the Russian weather.
○ Germans are wearing summer uniforms with thin material. That’s how Russia
won.
○ Because Hitler attacked Yugoslavia in April, it slowed down his attack of Russia
by like 3 months which then helped saved Russia.
○ Because of the delay and Hitler not thinking straight, this caused millions of lives.
■ Made the same mistake as Napoleon.
● August 20,1944-January 27,1944- Leningrad.
○ Will be surrounded by the Germans for like 900 days (3 years). Stalin wouldn’t let
people move because he thought it would motivate the soldiers. Slowly starved.
○ Thousands of people are starving to death. Found out later that Police killed a lot
of people for cannibalism.
● World war II military deaths in Europe by theater and by year
○ Most deaths happened in the Eastern front.
 ○ Axis powers lost 5.2mil and Allies lost 10.6 mil
● Partisans 1939-45
○ Fighting the Nazis that took over their country.
○ France had partisans because Germany had taken over Northern France.
○ Only make up about 1% of the population. Vast majority are just trying to survive
and make it through the war.
○ Partisans are made more important after the war.
● American Involvement
○ US starts to inch toward war
○ American president FDR was against isolation and in favor of involvement (knew
Hitler was evil)
○ Supplies start to flow to England. Before 1941
○ December 7, 1941 Japanese attack US Pearl Harbor, Hawaii
○ Germany and Italy declared war on December 11, 1941. This is how the US gets
involved in the war in Europe
● 1942 Allies turn the tide
○ Allies start to win.
○ September 13, 1942. Russian victory at Stalingrad turning point on the eastern
front.
○ Hitler wants to take stalingrad because Stalin is the leader and he wants it to be a
symbol. Germans suffer thousands and thousands of people
○ After this win, Russians start winning battles on the eastern front
○ Allies are victorious in North Africa
○ Eventually the Us is involved and by 1943, they have pushed the Germans out of
North Africa.
○ Most important battle of the African campaign-July 1-30, first of 1942: El Alamein
Battle of El Alamein.
○ July-August 1943- American and British Invasion of Sicily
■ Pushed the Germans and Italians out.
○ July 22, 1943, American and British invasion of Italy.
■ Mussolini becomes less popular even though he is already disliked.
■ The King of Italy realizes that he should just change sides and quit the
war. Italy surrenders to the allies and takes themselves out of the war.
■ Germany will move in and start to fight the Allies in Italy.
○ Arrest of Mussolini- July 1943
■ Arrested after the King’s orders and locked up in the prison on the hill
after they start losing to the Allies.
○ Rescue-September 1943
■ The Germans land the gliders in the middle of the night and go break
Mussolini out of prison by the Nazis
■ Fly him back to Germany
■ Hitler will send him back to Italy and say hey why not go to Northern Italy
and try to get more people on our side.
 ■ Mussolini goes back in 1944 and tries to organize a government that will
help fight the allies.
■ Germans have become more and more unpopular.
■ Italians really don’t like the Germans
○ Death- April 28,1945
■ Italian people capture Mussolini and execute him because he helped the
Germans.
■ Murdered, drug through the streets, and then hung from his feet.
■ Mussolini was killed with his girlfriend but Mussolini’s wife made it through
the war.
○ War in the Atlantic 1941-1945
■ 1943. Victory in Atlantic-radar and new warships cut down on German
U-boat(submarine) success. More supplies start reaching the UK.
■ All the British farmers are fighting the Nazis.
■ As the war goes on, Allies start to get radar on planes and lessen the
number of ships getting sunk.
○ German U-boats are the closest german weapons to ever come to the shores of
the US
■ Thousands of USA boats sunk by German U-boats
○ Albert Speer
■ Incharge of German Manufacturing.
■ Organized stuff to ship and stopped people from building basic things
■ Has to find extra workers. Used slave labor from all over Europe to find
factories that would make weapons.
■ One of his biggest problems was transportation. Hitler would say instead
of using these 50 cars to move important stuff to troops, lets use it to
murder people.
■ The holocaust hurt German manufacturing.
● December 1944
○ Battle of the Bulge
■ American survival; last German offensive of the war for
victory(Significance)
● June 13,1944
○ V-1 and V-2. Rockets
○ Germans are the best in the world at rocket technology at this time in history
○ V stands for vengeance
○ V-1 was buzz bomb. Could fly itself.
○ V-2 was the first rocket capable of leaving the atmosphere. Could fire, go up and
come back down. Designed to terrorize people. Don’t change the outcome of the
war.
○ If you wanna get an atomic weapon to the other side of the world what do you
do? Put the rocket into orbit and let the Earth turn and then it falls where you
want it. This was the V-3.
 ○ Nazis were working on Nuclear weapons
○ When the war ends and we win, half of all the rocket scientists in Germany go to
work for NASA to help put us on the moon​. Other half went to Russia. Most
famous van brom helped put us on the moon.
● German Messerschmitt Me-262
○ Very fast
○ The Germans don’t have enough fuel and have a hard time making the Me-262
○ If Germany has lots these, they can shoot down our bombers except they can’t
make enough
○ Have the best first jet pilot in the world
○ USA would wait for the jet to run out of fuel and then shoot them down
● August 1, 1944- October 2, 1944
○ Warsaw uprising. Poland capital
○ Run over by the Germans and were mean.
○ As the Russian Army got closer, the people in warsaw wanted to kill as many
germans as they could before the Russians got there.
○ Every weapon the Pols get, they have to get off of Dead Germans.
○ Stalin decides not to help the Pols. Stalin wants to run Poland afterwards. Hes
gonna let the Nazis kill all the pols so he doesn’t have to.
● Final Victory
○ 1945, American and British troops invaded Germany from the west.
○ 1945 Soviet Union liberated eastern Europe and invaded Germany from the East.
○ Germany is on the verge of collapse. Russians wanna get to the city of Berlin.
○ April-May 1945 Soviet Union surrounds and captures Berlin after brutal street
fighting.
● May 1, 1945 Hitler committed suicide in Berlin
○ His mental state had gotten worse as the war progressed
○ He retrieved to his bunker and decided to marry his longtime girlfriend like a
couple days before he dies.
○ Hitler gets poison and he and his wife and his dogs and hitler gave poison to his
dogs and then he and ava took the poison and then Hitler shot himself.
○ Lots of Nazis fanatics thought Hitler was the best.
● May 8, 1945 Germany surrenders (V-E Day: Victory in Europe Day)
○ Americans let the Nazis keep running factories to get things running again.
○ Only 12 Nazis were killed.
Questions:
1. Why does Britain and France not declare war on the Soviet union? They have hope that
Russia will help them in case Germany does something stupid.
2. Why does this war happen so fast? Type of warfare changed
3. What country attacked Poland on September 1? Germany
4. Who came to Poland’s aid? Britain and France
5. What country attacked Poland in Sept. 17? Soviet Union
6. Where was the winter war fought? Finland
7. 4 other countries SU attacked in 1940? Lithuania, Estonia, Latvia and Romania.
8. What was the phony war? British just sat and waited for the Germans
9. Why was it a mistake? Germany was afraid of a two front war
10. What military technique did the Germans use? Blitzkrieg
11. What is the maginot line? Kinda short super guarded wall that you can go around
12. How is Blitzkrieg rapid warfare? Netherlands and Belgium surrendered fast.
13. Dictator of soviet union? Joseph stalin
14. President of the USA? FDR
15. What two countries attacked poland? Germany and Russia
16. What countries did Hitler attack that are north of Germany? Denmark and Norway
17. Who constructed the maginot line? French
18. WHat was wrong with it? Walk around it
19. What country invented Blitz? Germans
20. What was saved at Dunkirk? English soldiers
21. Name three neutral countries? Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Portugal, and Ireland.
22. What would happen to you if you were a foreigner in an enemy country? You go to
civilian interment camps
23. The battle of britain was fought with what? Airplanes
24. Which side used radar? Britain
25. What is the significance of Britain winning? It gave the US an opportunity to start
somewhere
26. German airforces name? Luffewaffe
27. Largest tank battle of the war? Kerks
28. Why was the battle between? Germany and Russia
29. WHats the significance? Showed russian manufacturing getting better
30. Russian tank? Russian t34
31. Where did american bombers take off from to attack Germany? England
32. What was the name of the American bomber? B17
33. What was so important with the t51 mustang? Best fighter plane of the war because it
protects the bombers.
34. Where did the allies invade France? Normandy
35. What did hitler build to try and stop the ally invasion? Atlantic wall
 36. Last German offensive of the war? Battle of the Bulge.

Events:
● Germany and Italy declare war on USA December 9, 1941
● Warsaw Uprising August 1,1944-October 2,1944
● Germany surrenders May 8th
● Arrest of Mussolini/Rescue/Death July 25/26/43/ September 12,1943/April 28,1945
● Vichy France 1940 to 1942
● Neutral Countries in Europe

Battles:
● Germany invaded Poland September 1,1939-Nazis invaded Poland
● Russian invasion of Poland September 17,1939-Soviets invade Poland
● Finland invasion of Russia November 1939-March 1940
● “Phony War”1939-1940
● Dunkirk May 26,1940
● Defeats of France June 22, 1940
● The Battle of Britain July 10, 1940
● Germany took Yugoslavia and Greece April 6,1941
● Operation Barbarossa: German June 22, 1941
● Invasion of Sicily July August 1943
● War in North Africa 1940-43
● El Alamein July 1-39 First Battle of El Alamein
● Stalingrad September 13,1942
● Leningrad August 20,1941-January 27, 1944
● Battle for Moscow October 1941 and January 1942
● Kursk February 8,1943
● Allied invasion of Italy July 22, 1943
● Allies gain control of Italy
● D-Day June 6, 1944
● Battle of the Bulge: December 16-27/44
● Bombing of Dresden February 13/14 1945
● Battle for Berlin April 16, 1945
Leaders:

● Winston Churchill-Leader of UK before the war

● Benito Mussolini-Leader of Italy

● FDR-USA president
● Dwight D Eisenhower-Important person in the USA. Allied powe

● Adolf Hitler-German dictator

● Heinrich Himmler- Very bad man. Ran the holocaust

● Albert Speer-Hitler’s favorite German architect. German war industry

● Francisco Franco- Dictator of Spain

● Neville Chamberlain- Prime minister of UK when the war starts
 ● Joseph Stalin-Soviet leader.
Technology

● German U-boat

● P-51 mustang

● b-17
● v-1

● v-2

● Radar

● Maginot line
● Atlantic wall