wwii-cp

WWII BEGINS On September 1, 1939, Germany invaded Poland. Two days later, Britain and France declared war on Germany. WWII had begun. Poland resisted Germany's onslaught, but its army was outdated. They rode horses and carried lances against German tanks. The Germans also used a new type of warfare called blitzkrieg, or "lightning war." Blitzkrieg used large numbers of massed tanks to break through and rapidly encircle enemy positions. They also had waves of aircraft bomb enemy positions and drop paratroopers to cut their supply lines. Warsaw fell to the Germans on September 27. By October 5, 1939, the Germans had defeated the Polish military. Now it was France's turn. After WWI France built a line of concrete bunkers and fortifications called the Maginot Line along the German border. The French decided to wait behind the Maginot Line, instead of risking their soldiers by attacking. That was stupid. It made the Germans invade the Netherlands, Belgium, and Luxembourg to get around the Maginot Line. In response French forces raced north into Belgium leaving only a few troops to defend that part of the border. The Germans used tanks to get to France and made their way past the French lines. French armies were still in Belgium and couldn't move back fast enough, trapping them in Belgium. After trapping the Allied forces in Belgium, the Germans began to drive them toward the English Channel. The only hope for Britain and France was to evacuate their surviving troops by sea, but the Germans had captured all but one port, Dunkirk. As German forces closed in on Dunkirk, Hitler suddenly ordered them to stop. This gave them a three-day delay to strengthen their lines and begin the evacuation. When the evacuation ended an estimated 338,000 British and French troops had been saved.

Holocaust