World War II Begins

Hitler's Ambitions
Adolf Hitler wanted more land, especially in the east, to expand Germany according to the Nazi policy of lebensraum. Hitler used the harsh limitations that were set against Germany in the Versailles Treaty as a pretext for Germany's right to acquire land where German-speaking people lived. Germany successfully used this reasoning to envelop two entire countries without starting a war.

    Austria: On March 13, 1938, Germany took over Austria (termed the Anschluss) - a contingeny specifically disallowed in the Versailles Treaty.

    Czechoslovakia: The French and the British handed Germany a large portion of Czechoslovakia at the Munich Conference in September 1938. Hitler had then taken the rest of Czechoslovakia by March 1939.

Why was Germany allowed to take over both Austria and Czechoslovakia without a fight? The simple reason is that Great Britain and France did not want to repeat the bloodshed of World War I. They believed, wrongly as it turned out, they could avoid another world war by appeasing Hitler with a few concessions (such as Austria and Czechoslovakia). Great Britain and France had not clearly understood that Hitler's goal of land acquisition was much, much larger than any one country.

The Excuse
After having gained both Austria and Czechoslovakia, Hitler was confident that he could again move east, this time acquiring Poland without having to fight Britain and France. (To eliminate the possibility of the Soviet Union fighting if Poland were attacked, Hitler made a pact with the Soviet Union - the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact.)

March 13, 1938 Anschluss - Germany annexes Austria

Sept. 28-29, 1938 At Munich Conference Germany given portion of Czechoslovakia

March 1939 Hitler had taken over all of Czechoslovakia

Aug. 23, 1939 Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact signed

Aug. 31, 1939 Nazi stage an attack against a radio station

Sept. 1, 1939 Germany invades Poland; Britain and France deliver an ultimatum

Sept. 3, 1939 Great Britain and France declare war on Germany; World War II has begun

So that Germany did not officially seem the aggressor (which it was), Hitler needed an excuse for entering/attacking Poland. It was Heinrich Himmler who came up with the idea; thus the plan was code named Operation Himmler.

On the night of August 31, 1939, Nazis took an unknown prisoner from one of their concentration camps, dressed him in a Polish uniform, took him to the town of Gleiwitz (on the border of Poland and Germany), and then shot him. The staged scene with the dead prisoner dressed in a Polish uniform was supposed to appear as a Polish attack against a German radio station.

Hitler used the staged attack as the excuse to invade Poland.

Blitzkrieg
At 4:45 on the morning of September 1, 1939 (the morning following the staged attack), German troops entered Poland. The sudden, immense attack by the Germans was called a Blitzkrieg ("lightening war").

The German air attack hit so quickly that most of Poland's air force was destroyed while still on the ground. To hinder Polish mobilization, the Germans bombed bridges and roads. Groups of marching soldiers were machine-gunned from the air.

But the Germans did not just aim for soldiers, they also shot at civilians. Groups of fleeing civilians often found themselves under attack. The more confusion and chaos the Germans could create, the slower Poland could mobilize its forces.

The term "Blitzkrieg" ("lightening war") was coined by Western newspapermen to convey the rapid and mechanized German attack on Poland.
Using 62 divisions, six of which were armored and ten mechanized, the Germans invaded Poland by land. Poland was not defenseless, but they could not compete with Germany's motorized army. With only 40 divisions, none of which were armored, and with nearly their entire air force demolished, the Poles were at a severe disadvantage - Polish cavalry were no match for German tanks.

Declarations of War
On September 1, the beginning of the German attack, Great Britain and France sent Hitler an ultimatum - withdraw German forces from Poland or Great Britain and France would go to war against Germany.

On September 3, with Germany's forces penetrating deeper into Poland, Great Britain and France both declared war on Germany.

World War II had begun.