The primary obstacle to the German invasion force proved to be the Polish capital of Warsaw, which did not surrender until September 27, after a prolonged siege. By this time, all of western Poland was firmly under German control.
Although Germany’s invasion of Poland is often cited as the definitive example of the blitzkrieg tactic, not all historians share this view. Rather than rush straight to Warsaw and topple the government, Germany’s forces moved relatively slowly, focusing much of their energy on targets that were neither military nor political in nature. They sought not just to destroy the Polish government but also to obliterate the Polish people. In the first days and weeks of the war, both Jewish and non-Jewish civilians were killed regardless of whether they resisted. Villages and towns were burned, and fleeing survivors were ruthlessly chased down and shot.
It was in this invasion that the real nature of Hitler’s plan began to reveal itself. Although the regular German army, the Wehrmacht, defeated the Polish military within days of the initial invasion, a more sinister set of squadrons followed—the Totenkopf, or “Death’s Head,” part of the soon-to-be-infamous S.S. These squadrons immediately began rounding up and killing Polish civilians. Larger groups of Jews were singled out and herded into the central Warsaw ghetto where they were slowly starved for the next two years. Smaller groups encountered along the way were shot on the spot. Although Jews were particularly singled out, the non-Jewish Polish peasantry was treated little better. Though these atrocities would pale in comparison with what was to come, the initial weeks of Hitler’s invasion were a gruesome demonstration of the German war machine’s capabilities and intentions.
Just two weeks after the German invasion began, Soviet troops invaded Poland from the east, on September 17, 1939. It took them only two days to push far enough to meet German troops advancing from the west. By this time, Germany had already taken most of Poland except for Warsaw, which was under siege. Upon meeting the Russian troops, the Germans handed over large numbers of prisoners and promptly pulled back to the line agreed upon in the German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact. Retreating Polish armies, unaware that the USSR was part of Germany’s occupation plan, fled directly into Russian hands.
Britain and France—which were soon labeled the Allied Powers, just as they had been in World War I—both declared war on Germany on September 3, 1939, just two days after Germany began its invasion of Poland. However, aside from basic defensive preparations, neither country took significant action for several months. Rather, Britain initiated a propaganda effort against Hitler by using its bombers to drop millions of anti-Nazi leaflets over Germany. Among the British public, this effort soon came to be known as the “confetti war.”
Germany likewise took little action after the invasion of Poland was complete, aside from several small naval attacks on Allied shipping vessels. This period of relative calm has been sarcastically labelled the “Sitzkrieg,” or sitting war—a play on blitzkrieg. Rather than make an offensive move of their own, the Allies waited for the expected German attack on Belgium and France. It would not come for many months, until the late spring of 1940.
The one active hot spot during this “Sitzkrieg” was Finland, which the USSR invaded on November 30, 1939, with the goal of seizing the eastern Finnish territory of Karelia. Though vastly outnumbered and outgunned, the Finns fought back with determination and innovation, even employing troops on bicycles and skis. The invasion, which was expected to end quickly, instead lasted until March 13, 1940, when Finland finally capitulated, ceding Karelia to the Soviet Union, along with the major port of Viipuri (present-day Vyborg). Although Finland lost territory, the victory cost the USSR more than 200,000 lives, more than twice the number that it cost the Finns.
After months of inaction, the first sign that Hitler was again on the move came in early April 1940. On April 9, German troops simultaneously took Copenhagen, the capital of Denmark, and landed on the coast of Norway. Denmark gave in almost immediately. In Norway, although the capital at Oslo was quickly taken and a puppet government set up, a strong resistance movement supported by Britain and France continued to fight the Germans for two months. The combat was generally limited to the less densely populated areas in the north of the country.
After months of nervous speculation, Germany brought war to Western Europe on May 10, 1940, with the primary goal of conquering France. German bombers hit air bases in France, Luxembourg, Belgium, and the Netherlands, destroying large numbers of Allied planes on the ground and crippling Allied air defences. Elite squads of German paratroopers were dropped onto fortified Allied points along the front, neutralizing a key element of France’s defence strategy.
On the ground, German forces advanced in two directions: one through the Netherlands and northern Belgium (where Britain and France had expected) and the other, larger force to the south, through Luxembourg and into the Ardennes Forest on a path that led directly into the French heartland. Unaware of the German advance to the south, Britain and France sent the bulk of their troops to Belgium.
During the first days of the attack, the Germans made slower progress toward Brussels and The Hague than expected, as the Dutch forces fought back formidably. In response, on May 14, the German air force, the Luftwaffe, unleashed a massive bombing attack on central Rotterdam, even while surrender negotiations with the Netherlands were under way. Although efforts were made to call off the attack at the last minute, only some of the German pilots got the message, so part of the attack was carried out. Over 800 civilians were killed, and the Netherlands surrendered that day.
The British and French plan to defend Belgium was to make a stand at a line of forts between the cities of Antwerp and Liege. Unaware that these forts had already been captured by German paratrooper units on the first night of the invasion, the British and French armies found themselves under assault on May 13. At the same time, the second, unexpected German offensive to the south emerged from the Ardennes Forest. Over the next few days, the main Allied armies were trapped between the two German forces, able neither to protect Paris nor to stop the Germans from advancing to the English Channel. Then, when the German troops to the south moved between the French and British forces, the Allies were divided and thus weakened further still. The Allied defence of Belgium was unequivocally a disaster.
While the main French army was trapped between the two German armies, the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) was being pushed to the coast near the French port of Dunkirk. With the BEF cornered with its back to the sea, and with little hope of reuniting with French forces, the British government decided that the BEF had to be evacuated. The evacuation, called Operation Dynamo, began on May 27, 1940. It took a full week to accomplish, using more than 800 civilian and military sea vessels. In all, more than 300,000 men were brought back across the English Channel to British soil. The feat was heroic—it was done under nearly constant bombardment from the Luftwaffe—but it left France completely on its own.
With the British out of the way, the Germans began their final push against France. By June 12, German tanks had broken through the main fronts along the Somme River and the fortified Maginot Line, moving ever closer to their goal, Paris. During this time, the British vigorously encouraged France to resist at all costs. The new British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill, even flew to Paris himself to offer his personal encouragement. At the same time, though, the British government denied French requests for military assistance, wanting to conserve strength for Britain’s own defence in the near future.
By this time, the size of the French army had been reduced by roughly half, and French leaders became resigned to an inevitable surrender. On June 22, 1940, France signed an armistice with Germany. Hitler insisted that it be done in the same railway car in which Germany had surrendered to France in 1918, at the end of World War I. On June 23, Hitler flew to Paris for a brief sightseeing tour of the occupied city, during which a widely published photo was taken of Hitler standing against the backdrop of the Eiffel Tower.
Although many have attributed Germany’s rapid conquest of France to simple weakness of France’s armed forces, this conclusion is incorrect. France’s military at the time was actually larger and more technologically advanced than Germany’s. In fact, before the invasion, a number of senior German military leaders felt strongly that Germany was unprepared to take on France militarily. During the invasion, Hitler himself was highly apprehensive and expressed disbelief at his own victories.
Rather, France fell primarily due to mistaken assumptions about how the attack would be carried out. Germany’s advance through the Ardennes Forest was not anticipated, and even when French intelligence received word of it, they took little action because they did not believe that German tanks could make their way through a dense forest. Thus, the core of the French forces, reinforced by the British, was sent into Belgium, where the main attack was incorrectly expected to take place.
After France fell, the British government was certain that Germany’s next move would be against the United Kingdom. These fears were confirmed when British intelligence intercepted coded German radio transmissions that made it clear that an invasion of Britain was imminent. Preparations in Britain had long been under way, and aircraft, guns, and ammunition were arriving by ship from the United States on a regular basis, despite the constant threat of attack by German submarines. The British would rely upon air and naval power as their primary defence, as they knew that they would quickly lose the war if German troops set foot on British soil in large numbers.
As Britain braced itself, one of its immediate goals was to prevent the French navy from falling into German hands. As a result, Operation Catapult was put into action on July 3, 1940. A British naval force based in Gibraltar was ordered to Mers-el-Kebir, Algeria, where much of the remaining French navy had fled. The British offered the French crews a choice: they could sail immediately for Britain and join in the fight against Germany, hand their ships over to the British, allow the British to move the ships somewhere safe in the West Indies, or scuttle their fleet. The French crews refused all four options, leaving the British little choice but to fire upon their allies, destroying the ships and killing over 1,200 French sailors. French ships at several other locations, however, were seized without incident.
The German code name for its plan to conquer the United Kingdom was Operation Sea Lion. The operation began tentatively, as a series of probing bomber attacks against British ships in the English Channel and ports in southern England in early July 1940. In fact, Hitler was still debating whether to invade Britain or Russia first.
The first German bomber attack over the Channel came on July 10, 1940. Yet even as late as July 19, Hitler made a last-minute speech advocating peace with Britain, presumably trying to buy time. Britain ignored the appeal. Skirmishes over the Channel and coastal southern England continued into August, but the Royal Air Force only rarely came out to defend the ships in the channel, preferring to hold off until the German planes got closer to the mainland, nearer to the limit of their range. As a result, British shipping in the Channel suffered heavy damage, but the RAF was able to conserve pilots and planes for the coming battle.
In early August 1940, Hitler decided to begin massive bombing raids on air bases and military command posts in southern England, hoping to break Britain’s will. Germany would withhold any attempt at a ground invasion; however, until it was clear that air superiority could be gained over England. On August 13, which the German high command labelled “Eagle Day,” Germany sent more than 1,400 bombers and fighters across the English Channel. The Germans brought down only thirteen British fighters that day but lost more than three times as many of their own aircraft.
Over the next several days, the Germans continued to suffer comparatively heavy losses. While this gave British pilots a certain sense of optimism, the sheer numbers of planes the Germans sent meant that many bombers were still reaching their targets. Nevertheless, even after three weeks of incessant attacks, the RAF was still very much intact.
In early September 1940, Hitler directed the Luftwaffe to shift its focus to the major British cities, including London. The attacks began on September 7 and continued into May of the following year. At times, they continued day and night for weeks at a time without letup. Tens of thousands of Londoners lost their lives during this time, along with thousands of residents of other British cities. In the meantime, however, British bombers were also conducting nightly air raids on central Berlin.
Although this London Blitz continued, Hitler decided on September 17, 1940, to put his plan for an invasion of Britain on hold indefinitely. It was clear that air superiority over England would be difficult to attain. Instead, Hitler turned his attention to Russia.
The Battle of Britain marked the first turning point in the war, as it was the first time that German forces failed to achieve a major goal. The Royal Air Force’s strong and effective resistance caused Hitler to abandon the idea of invading Britain and to turn his attention to Russia. Although the Blitz continued to terrorize London and other cities for months to come, Britain no longer faced the threat of a ground invasion. It demonstrated to the world that with enough stubborn resistance, Hitler could be forced back.
The Battle of Britain was also the first time in history when air power alone decided the outcome of a major battle. Hitler knew that there was no way he could invade Britain on the ground without first gaining air superiority. Churchill and the British military leadership also knew that stopping the Luftwaffe would be the key to their survival. The German air attacks against Britain were massive, but their initial intensity could not be maintained if the Germans were consistently losing twice as many aircraft as the British. Indeed, by the battle’s end, Germany had lost 1,700 planes to 900 British planes.
The value of the new technology of radar was also effectively demonstrated for the first time. The British had built a net of radar stations along their coastline prior to the battle, and this system proved invaluable, as British controllers could see the enemy coming and scramble fighters in the right place at the right time. Radar also prevented the loss of large numbers of aircraft on the ground, as happened during the initial days of the invasion of France. Although the Germans made an effort to bomb radar stations early on, by mid-August they gave up this strategy, believing it ineffective. It was a major mistake.
Moreover, British pilots had a considerable advantage in fighting over their own turf. Whereas German pilots had limited time over their target areas before having to return home to refuel, British pilots could stay in the air longer and even return to base, refuel, and then resume the fight. Thus, the mere act of engaging the German planes, forcing them to expend fuel by diverting them from their course, meant that fewer bombs would reach intended targets. For both Britain and Germany, this air combat was a new kind of warfare, and each side’s strategies were experimental in nature.
