During the War
Big Battles
Invasion of Poland
In 1935, 1.5 million German troops invaded Poland all along its 1,750-mile border with German-controlled territory. At the exact same time, the German Luftwaffe bombed Polish airfields, and German U-boats and warships attacked Polish naval forces in the Baltic Sea. Hitler claimed that this was a ‘defensive action,’ but Britain and France did not believe him. On September 3, they declared war on Germany. This marked the beginning of WWII. |
Battle of Britain
This was supposed to intimidate the British people, and to drop morale. Even though it sounds like it would, even after all of those nights of bombings, the people remained strong. This stubbornness carried even to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, who rallied and outsmarted his fellow politicians who wanted to negotiate Hitler. So, if they didn’t negotiate, how did they stop him? Well, “the Battle of Britain ended when Germany’s Luftwaffe failed to gain air superiority over the Royal Air Force despite months of targeting Britain’s air bases, military posts and, ultimately, its civilian population” (Cowley, Parker). This was an influential part of the war, because after this failure, Hitler turned to Russia. This proved eventually to be the beginning of the end of World War II.
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In June, 1940, Nazi Germany had grown into what can only be described as a superpower. After the evacuation of Dunkirk, France was occupied completely by the Germans. So, Germany had expanded all the way to the western side of France, the side that faces Britain. This began Hitler’s new plan; operation ‘Sea Lion’. This became the Battle of Britain, it included Germany using ‘Blitz’ warfare. “On September 7, 1940, 300 German bombers raided London in what would be the first of 57 consecutive nights of bombing. This "blitzkrieg" would continue until May 1941” (Cowley, Parker). |
Invasion of RussiaAfter the failed invasion of Britain, Hitler started operation “Barbarossa,” the invasion of the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. This was the largest German military operation in all of WWII. This whole goal had been on Hitler’s mind since the 1920s. He always saw the German-Soviet nonaggression pact as a temporary tactical maneuvers he always knew he would break it and Operation Barbarossa was when he did. With 134 divisions at full fighting strength and 73 more divisions for deployment behind the front, Germany was prepared for a large scale battle.
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German forces invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. This followed the pact signed less than two years prior. Russia was attacked by Germany and its allies: Finland, Romania, Italy, Croatia, Slovakia, and Hungary. They all attacked the Soviet Union across the broad front. The front stretched from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea. On December 6, 1941, The Soviet Union launched a major counterattack against the center of the German front, driving the Germans back from Moscow in chaos. They were not able to stabilize the front and resume offensive untold the summer of 1942. Germany reached its biggest land ownership in September 1942, when they got to 120 miles from the Caspian Sea.
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German Military
Just before WWII, Oberkommando des Heeres (OKH) was the main organization that army general staff, but not Adolf Hitler. He diluted its command efficiency and power, relegating the OKH to a small role. He then installed himself as the supreme military commander and founded Oberkommando der Wehrmacht (OKW). From the beginning of the Nazi era, senior officers of the general staff opposed the Führer. In turn, Hitler mistrusted the general staff virtually to a man. That mistrust was well founded. During the 1930s, those officers who had questioned Hitler’s judgment lost credibility as Germany reclaimed territory forfeited following World War 1. |
The Germans did not lose WWI because they didn’t kill enough of the enemy, they did not lose because they lost too many of their allies to Germans. No, they lost because they surrendered. They surrendered due to depleted resources, they could not support a war any longer. They lost the fuel, but they still had a huge engine. And that engine fired back up for the second go at a world war. They couldn’t just break out the old guns and planes and start shooting though, at the treaty of Versailles, most of the blame was put on Germany, and they were forced to reduce and abolish some parts of their military. Specifically, they had to deconstruct 15,00 Aircraft and reduce their fighting strength to 100,000 men. |
Soldiers
The German army is often called the Wehrmacht, but that name is actually not true, the Germans called their army their Heer. The overall command was called the OKH or Oberkommando des Heeres, at Zossen near Berlin. As for the soldiers, Nazi SS combat troops were Hitler's most diehard and elite soldiers, still notorious for their wartime atrocities. They always fought well, but suffered from waning morale after D-Day. The navy was called the Kriegsmarine, had a huge strength of 250 of the notorious German U-boats. |
A force that size took 10 years to build. And then there was the key division of the German army called the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe was bred after the forced destruction of German aircraft after the treaty of Versailles, and it was better than ever. This elite fighting force made mostly of bombers innovated what is called Blitzkerig, or ‘Lightning war.’ This involves striking fast, and with everything you have, in a concentrated area. This uses less resources and it is easy to attack often. It is one of the reasons that the German army was so effective during WWII. |
Hitler Youth
The Hitler youth was a youth organization of the Nazi party in Germany, its purpose was to teach the youth the views and thoughts of the Nazis so that in the future there would be more supporters for Hitler's ideas. Hitler believed that the youth would be vital to the future of the third Reich. The kids would become strong and loyal supporters of Nazi views. To spread the word of this organization, posters advertising the idea were spread around Germany attracting children. After the Nazis would become into power, children would then be forced to join and soon over 2 million children would be apart of the Hitler youth. By 1940 there would be over 8 million children in the organization and there were two different groups, one for boys and one for girls. The children would do several activities such as hiking, sports, military activities, with a main goal to be in an environment filled with the Nazi's views.
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