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TRANSCRIPT
• Hitler violated the Treaty of Versailles and no one did anything– First: Austria– Second: Sudentenland
• Hitler and Neville Chamberlain met in Munich, Germany
• Introduced appeasement – give into Hitler’s demands, war would be avoided
• It didn’t work
• Third: Czechoslovakia (by force)• Fourth: Poland
• Signed a nonaggression pact with Joseph Stalin (Soviet Union)– They agreed not to attack each other as they
expanded their empires
• On September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland• A new type of warfare – Blitzkrieg (lightning
war)
• Britain and France declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939
• Fifth: Denmark and Norway• Sixth: Belgium, Netherlands and Luxembourg• Seventh: France
• Germans bypassed the Maginot line and entered France
• Trapped the French near the port of Dunkirk
• German airforce was to finish them off• Bad weather delayed them• The British ferried them to safety across the
channel
• Mussolini (Italy) joins Germany in the war
• Now Britain stands alone against Germany• British Royal Air Force (RAF) shot down many
German planes • Battle of Berlin – bombing of Britain for one
year
• Eighth: Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and Greece
• Hitler decided to attack the Soviet Union• He was afraid Russia would change sides and
help Britain• Now had to fight on two fronts
• Russians practiced a “scorched earth” policy• Germans were 40 miles from Moscow in
October• Hitler continued on during the winter• Russia attacked on December 6 and Germans
had to retreat
America
• America sold war materials to the Allies, but they had to use cash and use their own ships
• Selective Service Act – draft to be ready in case of war
• Land Lease Act – allowed the president FDR to send equipment to any nation in return for property, services or equipment
• Japan joined the Axis powers.