Reg Grant - World War II. Europe

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Grant, Reg G.

World War II: Europe / by Reg Grant.

p. cm. (Atlas of conflicts)

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 978-1-61535-604-1 (e-book)

1. World War, 1939-1945CampaignsEuropeJuvenile literature. [1. World War, 1939-1945CampaignsEuropeMaps for children.] I. Title. II. Series.

D743.G644 2004

940.5421dc22

2004046471

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German dictator Adolf Hitler shakes hands with army officers at a Nazi Party rally in 1934. Hitler rapidly expanded Germanys armed forces through the 1930s.

W orld War II is generally said to have started on September 1, 1939, when Germany, ruled by the Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, invaded its neighbor Poland. Conflict in Europe, however, had actually been building up for several years before that date.

Hitler came to power in Germany in 1933. He had publicly committed himself to the overthrow of the Versailles Treaty, the peace treaty imposed by the victors on a defeated Germany in 1919 at the end of the Great War (now known as World War I). Under the terms of this treaty, which had been designed to keep Germany from starting another world war, Germany was only allowed a small army with limited armaments and no air force. It was not allowed to have troops in its own Rhineland, which bordered France. The borders of Germany set by the treaty left many German-speaking people outside the countrys borders. Austria, which was mostly German-speaking, was forbidden to become part of Germany.

Hitler challenged the Versailles settlement step by step. He rapidly set about rebuilding Germanys armed forces, including its air force. Rearmament was already well under way by the time it was officially announced in 1935. The following year, German troops marched into the demilitarized Rhineland. Britain and France, the two powers mainly responsible for the Versailles Treaty (and with a major interest in upholding it to keep Germany contained) protested but did nothing.

THE AXIS ALLIANCE World War II would soon become a struggle between Hitlers Axis Alliance and the Allies of Britain. In 1936, Hitler formed the Axis alliance with another dictator, Italys Benito Mussolini, who had angered Britain and France in 1935 by invading the independent African country of Abyssinia (now Ethiopia). When civil war broke out in Spain in July 1936, Germany and Italy sent forces to support General Francisco Francos Nationalist rebels against the Republican government. Franco triumphed in 1939 and became Spains dictator.

Meanwhile, in March 1938, encouraged by his success in remilitarizing the Rhineland, Hitler annexed Austria. This was known as the Anschluss (joining together). Hitlers army faced no resistance, and he was greeted by cheering crowds in the Austrian capital, Vienna. Again, Britain and France did nothing.

Next, Hitlers attention turned to Czechoslovakia, a well-armed, democratic ally of France. Hitler threatened to invade Czechoslovakia to liberate the Germans living in Czechoslovakias Sudetenland area. This seemed certain to lead to war with Britain and France. Instead, at a Munich conference in September 1938, Britain and France joined Germany and Italy and ordered the Czechs to hand over Sudetenland to Germany. British prime minister Neville Chamberlain returned to Britain claiming peace with honor, for allowing German forces to occupy the Sudetenland without a shot being fired.

The Saarland voted to rejoin Germany in 1935. The rest of Germanys expansion was achieved by the threat of military action.

Hitler drives triumphantly through the streets of the Austrian capital, Vienna, after the annexation of Austriathe Anschlussin June 1938.

HITLERS ACHIEVEMENTS

In April 1939, German Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler looked back triumphantly over his successes. He declared: I have endeavoured to destroy sheet by sheet that Treaty [of Versailles] which contains the vilest oppression which peoples and human beings have ever been expected to put up with. I have brought back to the Reich provinces stolen from us in 1919; I have led back to their native country millions of Germans who were torn away from us and were in misery

Quoted in Hitler, Joachim Fest

Danzignow Gdanskon the Baltic provided Hitler with a pretext for invading Poland in September 1939. Once the Soviet Union invaded from the east, the Poles had no chance. Germany and the Soviet Union had secretly agreed to partition Poland between themselves before the war began.

Chamberlain and other appeasers believed that if Hitler was allowed to overturn the Versailles Treaty, gathering all German-speaking people within Germanys borders, he would be satisfied and peace would be maintained. In reality, Hitlers ambitions went much further. His ultimate goal, as he told his generals in 1939, was to obtain living space (