World War 2 (WWII) never fail to make it as one of the more important topics in a History class. Reasons and speculations have been made on why World War 2 happen even though the world had experienced with the atrocities of World War 1. Reasons given among many are:
- The unfair Treaty of Versailles: Left Germans with bitterness and wanting revenge for the humiliation they underwent
- League of Nation: Collective security is an idealistic policy.
- Great Depression
- Appeasement Policies of some League of Nation Members.
So how did it actually start? Enter the opening phase period of 1939 to 1940….
German army advanced into Western Europe and had straight victories till Battle of Britain. War aims of Germany were to conquer lebensraum, overthrow Treaty of Versailles, reunite all Germans and dominate the world.
Germans struck Poland on 1st September 1939 with a series of Blitzkrieg, which had elements of speed and surprise and took place in 3 stages. Panzers smashed through defense lines at rate of 50 miles per day. Luftwaffe (German aircraft) bombed communications, supplies, headquarters and destroyed Soviet air and tank force. Lastly, infantry troops were sent in to drive through demoralized enemy forces.
The Luftwaffe paralyzed Polish railway system and air force. Poland could not… resist modern German troops and modern weaponry. France and Britain did little to help Poland. By 17th September, Germany had defeated western Poland and Warsaw (capital) surrendered on 28th September. Poland was divided up between Germany and USSR on 29 September. There were nearly 100000 causalities.
Allied Strategy had tanks thinly spread across a wide area while Germany concentrated their tanks in large numbers in a few places. French Maginot Line was a series of strong underground forts along French-German border that planned to hold off Germans. French High Command had been certain that German troops would attack the French-German border instead of elsewhere. Britain and France used tanks to support the infantry.
The Winter War saw Russia taking over Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania. Russia invaded Finland in November 1939, forcing her to hand over frontier territories, enabling the Russians to defend themselves better against any attack from the West. France and Germany manned their respective defense (Maginot and Siegfried respectively). Hitler was hoping that the Allies were weakened and would surrender during the phoney war (5 months pause of war).
Hitler’s troops occupied Denmark and landed at main Norwegian ports in April 1940, shattering the calm of Phoney War. Norway was important because Narvik was the main outlet for Swedish iron ore necessary for German’s armament. Germany pre-empt Britain to capture Norwegian ports as British’s mining activities jeopardized ore supplies to Germany. These ports could serve as naval bases to launch attacks on Britain’s trans-Atlantic supply lines. Germany secured bases and supply of iron ore but this made the German navy less effective at Dunkirk than it might have been. Incompetence of Chamberlain’s government was reflected during the invasion, forcing him to resign and Churchill became the new Prime Minister of Britain.
Plan Yellow (Invasion of Holland, Belgium and France) saw 3 attacks and Blitzkrieg launched simultaneously on 10th of May 1940.
Holland was shaken by bombing of Rotterdam that killed thousands and surrendered just after 4 days. Hitler needed Holland’s ports to invade Britain. Belgium showed better resistance but surrendered at end of May. British and French troops in Belgium were perilously exposed as German Army B’s motorized divisions swept across Northern France.
Army Group B was to be a decoy attack to divert Allies into Belgium. Army Group A, the main attacking force, launched surprise attack through Ardennes, which was thought to be impassable due to dense forest and hills. Army Group A broke through on an 80km front between Namur and Sedan
The Allies attempted to counter attack at Aras but the BEF in France were driven back to coast with French army. The Maginot Line served no purpose at all.Evacuation of 330000 Allied soldiers from Dunkirk from 26th May – 4th June 1940 was well planned. Hitler’s troops had to stop moving to Dunkirk due to unsuitable and marshy terrain. On 4 June, Dunkirk fell to the Germans. Allies left behind 60000 vehicles and 500000 tons of stores and equipment. On 22nd June, the French Marshal Petain signed the armistice and Germans occupied northern France. Southern France was ruled independently by a German puppet government based in Vichy.
Battle of Britain (12 August to 30 September 1940) lasted throughout the summer of 1940 and into the autumn. Hitler felt that air supremacy over the Channel was essential. He gave Goering the opportunity to vindicate himself and Luftwaffe by driving the RAF from the skies. 1st stage of Hitler’s plan was to control the Channel, destroy coastal installations, munitions factories, bombing port facilities and vital railways during the day and bomb towns and airfields at night. In the 2nd phase, he turned attention to airfields inland, on the southern perimeter of London. It gave a welcome relief to fighter stations on the south coast whose radar masts had survived earlier attacks enabling them to continue intercepting and destroying German aircraft. By beginning of September, Goering switched his attack to industrial targets in and near London. Invasion was forced to postpone twice from 15-21 September, and afterwards to 27 September. 3rd phase of attack began on 6th September with daylight raids on London by massed bombers and their huge fighter escorts. Invasion was called off when Germany lost 1389 planes as compared to Britain’s 792 planes.
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